Gang jailed after drugs den racket which targeted Hartlepool is smashed

Hartlepool was one of the bases used by gang members alongside the Midlands, London and other locations within the north of England.

Migrants brought into the country illegally were often used to work in the drugs dens.

In Hartlepool, one trafficking victim said he was forced to work for the gang to repay the cost of arriving in the United Kingdom by boat.

After officers raided a property in town in 2021, they found a note pinned to a bedroom door saying: “Take what you want, please don’t hit me, I do not know English.”

National Crime Agency (NCA) investigations eventually led to the arrest of nine people across two gangs.

Two pleaded guilty and six were convicted after a trial before eight were sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court.

A ninth will learn his fate at a later date.

Ringleader Mai Van Nguyen, 35, of Beetham Tower, Birmingham, was jailed for 15 years after admitting conspiring to produce cannabis.

He had earlier received a five-and-a-half term in 2023 for conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration.

NCA branch commander Kevin Broadhead said after the sentences were confirmed: “The men sentenced today didn’t care that these migrants were brought to the UK in incredibly dangerous ways in lorries or in boats and were then made to live in degrading conditions, often under the threat of violence.

"They just saw them as a way to make money.

“Tackling organised immigration crime is a priority for the NCA, and it is cases like this that demonstrate exactly why.”

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