Gang used passports to control migrants
Five men are sentenced over a network bringing Vietnamese migrants to the UK.
**Gang used passports to control migrants**
Five men who used migrants’ passports as a form of “debt bondage” after smuggling them into the UK have been jailed.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said the gang smuggled Vietnamese migrants into the country and laundered more than £1.6m.
Investigators said the group took passports from migrants in France before they travelled to the UK in small boats and lorries.
The NCA said the documents were then used to control the migrants while payments for the crossings were gathered and sent back to Vietnam.
Investigators found that between July 2024 and October 2025, the men transferred more than £1.65m to accounts in Vietnam through 740 transactions.
More than 220 Vietnamese passports were found in a car linked to the investigation.
Vinh Van Nguyen and Quang Van Nguyen, both 31 and from Coventry, were said by the agency to have led the operation.
Officers arrested Quang in Birmingham city centre on 11 September 2025 after seeing him behaving suspiciously near a parked car.
A search of the vehicle revealed more than £16,700 in cash and 220 Vietnamese passports bundled together in the boot, along with handwritten notes and receipts from earlier money transfers.
The investigation had started two months earlier when French customs officers at Charles de Gaulle Airport intercepted a package addressed to Quang.
The parcel, marked as containing chocolates and clothes, was found to hold 22 Vietnamese passports.
Further inquiries connected money transfers made through Post Offices across the UK to members of the group.
The NCA said migrants’ passports were used as a form of “debt bondage”.
Forensic analysis of phones seized during the investigation uncovered conversations about people-smuggling routes, passports and migrant movements.
Officers also found messages describing migrants as “chickens”, which the NCA said was slang used by the gang.
NCA branch commander Sara-Jayne Moore said the group had shown “no qualms” about transporting migrants for profit.
She said the wording in messages recovered by investigators showed the gang’s attitude towards the people it smuggled.
Moore added that many migrants suffered further hardship after arriving in the UK while trying to repay debts tied to their journeys.
Receipts recovered during the investigation helped officers trace money transfers linked to the gang.
After a two-week trial at Liverpool Crown Court, Vinh was convicted of conspiracy to assist illegal entry into the UK and transferring criminal property.
Quang and Lia-Chien Trong, 34, had already admitted both offences, while Sy Trai Ho, 28, and Van Huy Nguyen, 23, from Rotherham, changed their pleas to guilty after the trial began.
Vinh was sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison, Quang to nine years and nine months, Huy to seven years and two months, Trong, of no fixed address, to six years, and Ho, also of no fixed address, to four years and six months.