![]() ![]() He acted as the FOG broker and exploited his criminal connections to obtain clients for the crime group. 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 the UK, Ireland and Spain. Handwriting experts established that Beard completed most of the application forms, and a voice recognition specialist determined that he called the UK Passport Office to chase up applications pretending to be the people named on the forms. His fingerprints were found on many of the forms, and the contact numbers he included were for numerous 'burner’ phones that he operated. 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. The gang also paid others to counter sign passport applications.īeard, from Sydenham in London, was an expert in FOGs, and NCA officers believe he had been procuring them for 20 years. 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 gang exploited vulnerable people – often with drink or drug problems – who were around the same age as their criminal clients and with similar facial features. ![]() L-R: Anthony Beard, Christopher Zietek, Alan Thompson The NCA's investigation, codenamed Operation Strey, started in 2017. The fake passports enabled criminals to operate abroad.Īmong those who got false passports from the gang were Glasgow murderers Jordan Owen and Christopher Hughes, Liverpool drug trafficker Michael Moogan, who was jailed for 12 years today, Manchester fugitive David Walley, and suspected Scottish drug traffickers Barrie Gillespie, Jamie Stevenson and James White.īeard, who pleaded guilty to fraud offences, also faces further charges in relation to FOGs used by other major transnational criminals, including Christy Kinahan, and firearms trafficker Richard Burdett. The criminals paid between £5,000 and £15,000 for these "highly sought after" documents, which were issued authentically but applied for using false information. The gang was dismantled following a covert surveillance operation and international investigation led by the UK National Crime Agency. Christy Kinahan, founder of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group (file pic) A UK crime boss who is suspected of supplying Christy Kinahan, the founder of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group, with a false passport has admitted he supplied false passports to other major criminals including drug traffickers and murderers.Īnthony Beard, 61, along with two other British men, 67-year-old Christopher Zietek, who spent time in Ireland, and 72-year-old Anthony Thompson were part of a gang that provided fraudulently-obtained genuine passports (FOGs) to organised criminals over a five-year period. ![]()
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