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.
