A number of criminals have been named as those who bought fake passports from a gang to try and evade arrest.
Anthony Beard, 61, and Christopher Zietek, 67, headed the gang which supplied fraudulent passports that enabled murderers and drug traffickers to evade justice and cross international borders completely undetected. The gang was caught after a operation by the National Crime Agency found they had provided fraudulently-obtained genuine passports (FOGs) to organised criminals over a five-year period.
Customers paid between £5,000 and £20,000 for the highly sought after documents, which were issued authentically but applied for using false information. This allowed them to operate abroad and carry on conducting criminality affecting the UK.
READ NEXT: Jet2 coming to Liverpool John Lennon Airport with 20 destinations on offer
After the NCA established the false identities offenders were using, many fugitives were caught all over the world. Among the recipients of the passports was Michael Moogan, former Crimestoppers "most wanted" fugitive.
The 37-year-old was jailed back in March and was the last British man sentenced in connection with a sting operation at the Café de Ketel in Rotterdam. The 'café' was the haunt of the shadowy 'Çamdere brothers', Turkish nationals who brokered major international drug deals.
Moogan, originally from Croxteth but who was living in West Derby, spent eight years on the run after getting wind the National Crime Agency (NCA) were seeking his arrest. He was eventually collared in Dubai in 2021, where he had been using fake German identification under the name "Michael Dwyer".
At Manchester Crown Court in March nearly 10 years on from the raid at the Café de Ketel, Moogan was finally brought to justice after pleading guilty to evading the prohibition on the importation of cocaine at an earlier hearing. He was jailed for 12 years.
Other recipients included Glasgow murderers Jordan Owens and Christopher Hughes, Manchester fugitive David Walley, and suspected Scottish drug traffickers Barry Gillespie, Jamie Stevenson and James White.
Owens was captured in Portugal while on the run, after shooting dead a rival near a Glasgow playpark.
Hughes used a phoney passport to evade capture in 2018 by providing an alias to officers, after being arrested over a fight in a Portuguese kebab shop.
He was convicted last year of murdering a Dutch crime writer outside an Amsterdam sex club.
Manchester fugitive Walley was snared by police at a property in Cheshire, while he celebrated his 45th birthday in 2020.
He was wanted by the National Crime Agency for the alleged trafficking of cocaine and MDMA and possession of false identity documents since 2013.
Another client of the passport gang was Jamie “Iceman” Stevenson, who was extradited from the Netherlands in 2022.
He was wanted in connection with a one-tonne cocaine haul uncovered within a cargo of bananas at the Port of Dover in September 2020.
James White, who was eventually arrested in Brazil and extradited back to Scotland also obtained a passport from the gang and Barrie Gillespie, wanted as part of a global probe into money laundering, drug dealing and gun trafficking.
The NCA’s investigation codenamed Operation Strey started in 2017. It ran in partnership with the Dutch National Police and HM Passport Office – and has been one of the most significant undertaken by the agency in recent times.
Beard and Zietek’s crime group exploited vulnerable people – often with drink or drug problems – who were around the same age as their clients and with similar facial features. They were paid for providing their expired passports, and their details were used to apply for new ones but with photographs of the criminals. The OCG also paid others to counter sign passport applications.
Beard, from Sydenham, London, was an expert in FOGs, and NCA officers believe he had been procuring them for 20 years. He was involved in every aspect of organising and applying for the passports, including collecting application forms and planning the details to be provided by the applicant and the counter-signatory.
His fingerprints were found on many of the forms, and contact numbers he included were for numerous ‘burner’ phones he operated. Handwriting experts established he completed most of the application forms, and a voice recognition specialist determined Beard called HM Passport Office to chase up applications pretending to be the people named on the forms.
Beard, who pleaded guilty to fraud offences, also admitted supplying over 70 FOGs used by other criminals, including Jamie Acourt, Christy Kinahan, and firearms trafficker Richard Burdett. Zietek, who was formerly known as Christopher McCormack and was believed to be an enforcer for the Adams crime family in London, split his time between Sydenham, Ireland and Spain.
He acted as the FOG broker and exploited his criminal connections to obtain clients for the crime group. The NCA captured audio recordings in Zietek’s house of incriminating conversations with Beard and others about the application processes and their customers.
Officers also observed meetings with identity donors or counter-signatories, analysed reams of mobile phone and cell site data, and deployed undercover officers to deliver some of the passports. Zietek and Beard were arrested during coordinated NCA raids in October 2021.
Between them charges were brought for offences of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, conspiracy to make a false instrument with intent (passports and ID documents), and money laundering.
Beard changed his plea to guilty on January 3, 2023, the first day of a nine-week trial at Reading Crown Court. Zietek was found guilty on 17 March.
NCA Deputy Director Craig Turner said: “The fraudulent passports this crime group supplied were seen as golden tickets by criminals, as they allowed them to operate internationally under false identities and pose a sustained threat to the public.
“The investigation demonstrates the NCA’s unique role in tackling the most serious and complex crime threats facing the UK. We have dismantled a crime group that enabled drug and firearm traffickers, murderers and fugitives to evade justice.
“We worked across international borders to bring the masterminds to account, and we will continue to protect the UK from criminals who present a threat to our security, people and economy.”
Zietek diversified into supplying false Latvian documentation to some criminals, including Christopher Hughes who was wanted by Police Scotland, as the impact of the investigation had begun to make obtaining British FOGs more difficult.
In December 2019, Zietek needed to travel to Portugal to hand over the Latvian documentation to Hughes in person but paid a woman he knew to travel instead. Recordings of conversations revealed Zietek giving the woman tips about avoiding detection at the airport, and what to say if apprehended.
Hughes’s Latvian passport was wrapped up and placed it in a Garmin Edge box to make it look like a Christmas present. After the courier checked in her baggage, it was covertly searched by NCA officers before the flight departed the UK. A DNA profile recovered from the passport was a match for Zietek. The woman handed Hughes the passport at a hotel in Portugal before returning to the UK just an hour later.
Another member of the crime group, Alan Thompson, 72, from Sutton, Surrey, was also found guilty on March 17. He worked for Zietek doing everything from chauffeuring him to criminal meetings to performing necessary tasks for the brokering of FOG passports, including meeting Beard when Zietek was abroad.
A FOG passport and several photographs of FOG customers were located at his home. At Reading Crown Court on May 16, Zietek was sentenced to eight years in jail, Beard to six years and Thompson to three years.
READ MORE
'Amazing' dad, 23, died a week after saying he was 'scared'
Brothers devastated when they arrive at work and open the door
Head wrongfully sacked for hiring teacher who sent suggestive messages to teen
City centre bar leaves people 'gutted' as it confirms closure
Shoppers rave over anti ageing eye cream that 'works wonders'
