3 Men Jailed for Supplying Fugitives With ‘Genuine’ Passports

National Crime Agency says operation is 'significant impact' on organised crime

Undated images of Christopher Zietek (L) and Anthony Beard (R) who were jailed for passport fraud at Reading Crown Court in Reading, England, on May 16, 2023. National Crime Agency

Three men have been jailed for running a racket that supplied fugitive drug traffickers and murderers with “genuine” passports.

Christopher Zietek, 67, and Alan Thompson, 72, were found guilty in March, after a nine-week trial, while Anthony Beard, 61, pleaded guilty on the eve of his trial.

Jailing them at Reading Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge Nicholas Ainley said: “These passports are going to work because they’re genuine. They will pass any checks by the Border Force. They subvert the whole system.”

He said, “It was to enable very wicked, sophisticated, violent criminals to escape justice by providing them with documents that because they were genuine would deceive the authorities to enable them to escape.”

“These were not run-of-the-mill criminals. They would not hesitate to kill people who got in their way,” the judge added.

Craig Turner, deputy director at the National Crime Agency (NCA), said it had dealt a major blow to the underworld by taking out the gang and he said, “It will have a significant impact on the ability of organised criminals to obtain passports.”

Zietek—who changed his name from McCormack after marrying his Polish girlfriend—was a well-known criminal, known as The Colonel, who had been an enforcer for the notorious Adams family in north London during their heyday in the 1990s, and had extensive contacts in the underworld.

He teamed up with Beard, a chronic alcoholic who had perfected the art of getting hold of fraudulently-obtained genuine passports (FOGs) over the past 20 years.

Beard, Zietek, and Thompson were jailed for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, conspiracy to make a false instrument—the FOGs—and converting criminal proceedings, or money laundering.

Zietek was jailed for eight years, Beard was given six years and eight months, and Thompson—who has congestive heart disease—got three years.

The trial heard about 12 specific passports, which had been supplied to gangsters, most of whom were from Scotland.

But on Tuesday, Beard also asked for 74 other offences dating back to 2007 to be taken into consideration, relating to dozens more passports which he had produced on his own.

Among those criminal customers he procured FOG passports for were Irishman Christy Kinahan senior—who is wanted, along with his son Daniel, by the U.S. government for money laundering—and Jamie Acourt, a convicted drug smuggler from London who is better known for being suspected of the murder of teenager Stephen Lawrence.

Trial Highlighted Flaws in Passport Application Process

The trial highlighted flaws in the passport application system and the UK Passport Office will be under pressure to tighten its rules.

Beard recruited men—often with drink or drug problems, and no need to travel abroad themselves—who were willing to let their details be used. They were paid between £100 and £1,000.

Wanted posters showing the U.S. government's $5 million reward for the arrest of Daniel Kinahan and associates are displayed at Dublin City Hall on April 12, 2022. Niall Carson/PA

The syndicate would then apply using the name, age, and address of the “identity donor” but would substitute a photograph of the fugitive who was paying them for the passport.

Other corrupt individuals were paid to counter-sign the back of the photograph, falsely confirming it was a “true likeness” of the passport applicant, who they would claim to have known for a number of years.

They would lie about their occupations, often stating they were psychiatrists or pub licensees, in order to pass the approved list for counter-signatories.

The identity donor’s age and race had to match that of the true recipient and the gang tried to find people who looked similar to the criminal customer who had ordered that passport.

But the trial highlighted how flawed the process is and how easy it was to trick the Passport Office, which did not check up on the counter-signatories or even wonder why the applicant’s new photograph looked so different to the image they had provided on their previous passport.

Customers Included 2 Brothers Missing in Brazil

Zietek’s customers included a Scottish criminal syndicate led by James and Barry Gillespie, which were the subjects of a Police Scotland probe called Operation Escalade.

The Gillespies were involved in drug importation, murder, abduction, money laundering, and the possession of explosives.

The pair—dubbed the Pablo Escobar brothers by the Scottish press—had fled their base in Rutherglen, near Glasgow, and travelled to Brazil using FOGs supplied by Zietek.

The Gillespies are believed to have been murdered in the Brazilian city of Fortaleza by members of the local underworld and last year Police Scotland cancelled a reward they had for the pair after saying they believed they had “come to harm” in Latin America.

Undated images of James Gillespie (L) and his brother Barry, who are wanted by Police Scotland for drugs offences but may have been killed in Brazil. Police Scotland

Zietek also sourced a FOG passport for Jordan Owens, who was on the run from Scottish police, who wanted to speak to him about the murder of Jamie Lee. Lee was shot dead in Glasgow in July 2017.

But Owens—referred to by Zietek as “the kid”—was arrested in Portugal before the passport could be handed over. He was later jailed for life, with a minimum term of 23 years.

Another customer was Michael Moogan, 36, who had been on the run since 2013. He used his FOG passport until he was eventually arrested in Dubai in 2021.

Moogan was extradited to England, convicted of drug importation, and earlier this month was jailed for eight years.

Moogan’s FOG British passport was under the name of Jack Kelly, who was born in 1982 and was a similar age to Moogan.

In March, Zietek’s daughter, Juliet McCormack, 41, and Michael Thompson, 57, were acquitted of perverting the course of justice. Kevin Crinnion, 73, was found not guilty of conspiracy to make a false instrument, and Mandy Smith, 63, was acquitted of converting criminal proceedings.

A Home Office spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email, “False identity documents fund and facilitate organised criminal gangs, enabling some of the most heinous individuals in the UK to go undetected who only cause harm and misery to our communities.”

“Thanks to the close working between the NCA and His Majesty’s Passport Office, these despicable individuals have been sentenced to over 17 years behind bars,” it added.

The spokesperson added, “This sentence demonstrates the government’s commitment to tackle and dismantle these despicable criminal gangs who seek to exploit and threaten public safety for profit.”