An alleged gangland enforcer was among three men jailed yesterday for supplying bogus passports to notorious drug barons and killers.
Ex-soldier and armed robber Chris Zietek, 67, charged up to £15,000 for the dodgy documents.
He teamed up with Anthony Beard, 61, to sell the fake passports to some of the UK’s most wanted criminals.
Jailing them at Reading crown court, a judge said they enabled “wicked, violent criminals to evade justice”.
Beard came up with the scam, targeting vulnerable people in rehab centres and shelters who bore a resemblance to his clients.
He paid them to lend him their identities, then applied to renew their passports with photos of a wanted crooks.
The National Crime Agency believe Beard, of Sydenham, South London, supplied at least 108 passports over 20 years. Zietek, who previously used the name Chris McCormack, acted as a broker between Beard and some of the UK’s most notorious criminals.
Detectives said he was an enforcer for the notorious Adams crime family in London. He introduced fugitives to Beard, who sold them passports so they could travel freely.
Among them was Irish cartel leader Christy Kinahan, who runs a £1bn drugs empire and is wanted by the US.
Other customers included Scottish gangsters James and Barry Gillespie, who are believed to have been executed by cartel leaders in Brazil. One Gillespie gang member, Jordan Owens, fled to Portugal on a bogus passport after shooting a rival dead in 2017.
Another, Christopher Hughes, murdered writer Martin Kok in the Netherlands in 2016. After fleeing on a false passport, he was captured in Italy in 2020 and convicted last year.
The NCA believes Beard obtained passports for “ Premier League ” Liverpool drugs trafficker Michael Moogan.
Beard pleaded guilty to conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and conspiracy to make a false instrument with intent in January.
He was jailed for six years and eight months at Reading crown court yesterday. Zietek, of Sydenham, and co-conspirator Alan Thompson, 72, of Sutton, Surrey, were both convicted following a trial in March.
Zietek was jailed for eight years and Thompson received a three-year term.
Craig Turner, NCA deputy director of investigations, said the passports they supplied were “the golden ticket for organised crime networks”.
Lawrence suspect was client
Stephen Lawrence murder suspect Jamie Acourt was caught in Spain when he tried to buy a fake passport from the gang.
The 46-year-old was spotted by NCA investigators as they watched surveillance footage of an associate of Anthony Beard.
Acourt on the run over a £3m drug smuggling plot, was arrested in Barcelona in 2018. He was later jailed for nine years.
