A man involved in the trafficking of illegal immigrants into the UK has been extradited following a Hungarian-led investigation supported by Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

Do Huan Nguyen, who was extradited to Hungary, was described as instrumental to an organised crime group believed to have trafficked more than 50 Vietnamese illegal immigrants, primarily to work in ‘cannabis factories’ in the UK.

Vietnamese nationals would travel via Moscow into Hungary where there is an established Vietnamese community. The traffickers would obtain genuine Hungarian passports from people of Hungarian-Vietnamese ethnicity and then arrange for the migrants to be made to look like the passport holder by skilled make-up artists using cosmetics and wigs.

Once in possession of the fraudulent passports, one or two migrants at a time would start their journey to the UK escorted by a member of the crime group. They used a variety of routes across Europe, the most popular destination being southern Ireland where they would travel by road to Belfast and then fly into one of a number of UK airports.

The immigrants and their escort would go through UK Passport Control separately before meeting up at the other side, where they would be met by another Vietnamese member of the group who would pay the escort up to €10,000 per person. At this point the passports would be handed back to the escort, who would return to Budapest with the passports and the money.

The illegal immigrants in the UK would then have to pay their debt by working in premises used for the commercial-scale cultivation of cannabis. Women would sometimes be trained as nail technicians to work in Vietnamese-owned nail bars.

All 17 members of the crime group were found guilty in a Budapest Court in November 2009, and the judge issued a European Arrest Warrant against Do Huan Nguyen for being instrumental in trafficking illegal immigrants from Europe into the UK.

Andy Baker, Deputy Director for SOCA, commented: “The issue of Vietnamese nationals being trafficked to work in cannabis factories is of great concern and we are delighted that our Hungarian partners have taken decisive action against those who profit from the misery of others.”