Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 50,610
Thanks: 28,767
Thanked 14,428 Times in 10,234 Posts
|
Endless Battle Fighting PAKI Crime Gangs Taking Over UK High Streets
Criminal Pakistani / Kurdish Networks Behind UK Illegal Mini Marts Enables Illegal Migrants to Work Illegally
Crime fixer at centre of illegal worker network caught by BBC investigation
Endless Battle Fighting The Crime Gangs Taking Over The High Street
BBC 12 NOV 2025
Wales
LUTON- Teens in care abandoned to crime gangs
Pakistani / Kurdish crime networks enabling migrants to work illegally in minimarts on High Streets the length of Britain, a BBC investigation can reveal.
The fake company directors are paid to put their names to official paperwork, and have dozens of businesses listed on Companies House, but are not involved in running them.
Two undercover reporters, themselves Kurdish, posed as asylum seekers and were told how easy it would be for them to take over and run a shop and make big profits selling illegal vapes and cigarettes.
We have linked more than 100 minimarts, barbershops and car washes, operating from Dundee to south Devon, to the crime network. But a financial crime investigator told the BBC he believes it goes much wider.
The Home Office said it will investigate the BBCs findings
Reacting to our investigation, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, said Illegal working and linked organised criminality creates an incentive for people to come here illegally. We will not stand for it
For the first time, we can reveal the inner workings of a criminal system that lets asylum seekers work in plain sight on UK High Streets, in minimarts that mainly profit from illegal cigarettes and vapes.
One man told us weekly takings from illicit tobacco at his shop could be sometimes, up to GB3,000
The men who facilitate it all so called ghost directors each have dozens of businesses listed on Companies House but in many cases are not involved in running them.
The shop doesnt belong to me, its just under my name, one of them told our undercover reporters.
Many of the businesses are dissolved after about a year, and then re opened with small changes to official paperwork.
These businesses have all the red flags associated with organised criminality, a financial crime investigator told the BBC.
During Our Investigation We Found
An asylum seeker, who says his claim was rejected, trying to sell a shop to our undercover reporter for
GB18,000
Facebook groups listing dozens of mini marts, barbers, car washes and takeaways for sale
Ghost directors charging illegal workers up to GB300 per month to register minimarts in their names
Pakistani builders offering to build elaborate hiding spaces for illegal cigarettes and vapes that would fool sniffer dogs
Asylum seekers, who said the Home Office had left them in legal limbo, working 14 hour shifts in minimarts for as little as GB4 per hour
The two Kurdish journalists involved in our investigation know that tensions over immigration are high. They worry that such coverage of illegal activities within the PAKI/Kurdish community could inflame hostilities.
One of them is a former asylum seeker himself, and says I wanted to play a role in uncovering these illegal activities to say loudly that they dont represent us.
A screenshot of a Facebook post with the words Selling fast at a very affordable price Market vape shop for sale. It includes a composite of five images of the inside of the shop.
Endless Battle;
Trading Standards officer Steve Hay breaks the window of a suspected stash car
In South Wales, the BBC was told of criminal gangs using forced labour, minimarts staffed with illegal workers and cars filled with drugs and fake cigarettes. It is just a glimpse of what one Trading Standards officer describes as an endless battle against the illegal tobacco and vape trade in Britain.
People living and working near shops like these have told the BBC they are terrified by the Pakistani criminality surrounding them, with reports of intimidation, open drug dealing and an acid attack.
Illegal cigarettes, tobacco and vape products were seized from 3,624 shops across England, Scotland and Wales in 2024/25, according to BBC Freedom of Information requests.
Responses were gathered from 169 local Trading Standards teams, out of an estimated total of 187. Many of the seizures came from convenience stores and vape shops, but illegal goods were also found in several other high street shops, including takeaways, beauty salons and even a carpet repair shop.
Chinese migrants, brought in on student visas, are forced to work illegally and stuff hundreds of pouches of tobacco every week.. The amount of money the gangscan make selling tobacco is greater than if they were selling drugs
The trade undermines legitimate retailers, funds wider crime, and harms public health according to HM Revenue and Customs, and deprived public services of nearly GB72MIL in 2023/24.
Whats more, local authorities have limited powers to tackle the problem.
Crime Gangs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIZRpcsIrhA
Pakistani Gangs Taking Over UK
Londonistan - Pakistani Gangs Taking Over UK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkslxbJN4AI
|