Anthony Beard, 61, and Christopher Zietek, 67, were caught after a covert surveillance operation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) found they provided fraudulently obtained genuine passports (FOGs) to organised criminals over a five-year period.
Customers paid between £5,000 and £20,000 for the sought-after documents, which were issued authentically but applied for using false information.
Among the recipients were Glasgow murderers Jordan Owen and Christopher Hughes, Liverpool drug trafficker Michael Moogan – who was jailed for 12 years in March this year – Manchester fugitive David Walley, and suspected Scottish drug traffickers Barrie Gillespie, Jamie Stevenson and James White.
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.
Beard 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.
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 in south London, Ireland and Spain. He acted as the FOG broker and exploited his criminal connections to obtain clients for the crime group.
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.
Another member of the crime group, Alan Thompson, 72, from Sutton, was also found guilty on 17 March. 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.
Beard changed his plea to guilty on 3 January 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."
