Birmingham: Moment people smuggler arrested

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Footage of the moment a people smuggler – who referred to migrants as “pork” and “chickens” – was arrested by armed police has been released.

Hai Xuan Le, 33, smuggled people from Vietnam to the UK in the back of lorries.

The man plotted a series of crossings in August and September 2020.

He tried to flee when officers arrived at his address in Handsworth, Birmingham, in September 2021, but was caught shirtless and taken into custody.

The Vietnamese national has since been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison and was described as treating humans as “nothing more than a commodity”, reports Birmingham Live.

In messages recovered by the National Crime Agency, members of his network referred to migrants as “pork” and “chickens”.

Using a range of different phone numbers, social media accounts and pseudonyms, Le would arrange for people to be transported to pre-arranged pick up points in Europe and loaded onto HGVs in France, Belgium or the Netherlands.

Once they had arrived in the UK, taxi driver Habib Behsodi, 42, from Chatham in Kent, worked with Le to pick up migrants and drive them to the West Midlands.

He would also collect cash payments.

NCA investigators were able to prove that Le was involved in at least seven separate attempts to move migrants to the UK in a period of just over two weeks between August 19 and September 4, 2020.

Le was arrested at his home address in September 2021, having tried to flee the property when he saw officers arrive.

Initially he gave the name of Ho Sy Quoc, but through working with the authorities in Vietnam, the NCA established his true identity.

Behsodi was arrested around the same time. Following a six-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court, both men were found guilty of conspiring to facilitate illegal immigration in December 2022.

Le was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison.

Behsodi was given a two-year jail sentence suspended for two years at a hearing on 21 February.

NCA Branch Commander Mick Pope said: “Hai Xuan Le showed complete disregard for those he was involved in moving across the Channel.

“He treated them as nothing more than a commodity and was happy to risk their lives in return for his own financial benefit.

“Le was the lynchpin of a wider global criminal network, acting as a fixer to get migrants onto lorries and into the UK.

“Habib Behsodi worked with him to facilitate this criminal activity and bring newly-arrived migrants to the West Midlands.

“Stopping people smugglers is a priority for the NCA and we are determined to do all we can to disrupt and dismantle the criminal networks involved, wherever they operate.”

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