Battered man's desperate journey

Tran Nguyen lived in the poorest region of Vietnam, in the jungle

After three men were convicted of the manslaughter of Vietnamese immigrant Tran Nguyen, who was beaten and dumped at a hospital, Gemma Williams looks at how his attempt to escape poverty in his homeland ended in tragedy.

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The more police pieced together the mystery of Tran Nguyen's brutal death, the more they unearthed a dark, underbelly of society.

As the Vietnamese immigrant's life became interlinked with crime gangs and cannabis factories, Gwent Police became immersed in a world they had never before fully explored.

In Newport alone they uncovered more than 20 active cannabis factories. Officers believe that all along the M4 corridor, gang leaders are setting up similar factories as London becomes saturated.

But, as officers found out, many of those working in them are themselves victims, in effect modern-day slaves indebted to gang leaders.

Mr Nguyen's story showed just how desperate some were to leave Vietnam for the money offered in Europe.

He lived in the poorest part of Vietnam, in Hanh Tinh, a very basic village in the middle of the jungle in the centre of the country.

"There's no drainage in the village and rain floods his house," said Det Supt Geoff Ronayne, the investigating officer on the case, who made the trip to Vietnam as part of the inquiry.

Tran Nguyen's home in Vietnam had no running water, electricity or gas.

"There's no running water, no electricity, no gas. They had two rooms - one to live in, one to sleep in."

He had a wife, 18-year-old son and younger daughter to support and to try to ensure his children were educated, Mr Nguyen made the decision to go to Europe to work and send money home.

Many before him had done the same, but it was a high-risk strategy.

Because of the communist regime, when Vietnamese people leave illegally, they are unlikely to return.

Mr Nguyen felt it was a sacrifice worth making.

He raised the money needed for a fake passport and visa, probably by taking out loans and remortgaging his home to gang leaders.

"They will mortgage their houses to crime gangs to get out of the country because the earnings here are huge in comparison to Vietnam," said Det Supt Ronayne.

The gang arranged for him to go to London at a cost. So he basically became slave labour Det Supt Ronayne

"If you earn £1,000 here it's £40,000 in Vietnam."

Mr Nguyen paid US $6,800 (£3,400) to a Vietnamese organised crime gang to be flown to a European destination.

After arriving in Ukraine, the 44-year-old then paid the equivalent of a further £7,200 to be taken to Germany, where he claimed political asylum.

However, that was refused by German immigration authorities after being arrested for selling tobacco and an order was made for his deportation back to Vietnam.

"He had to get out of Germany," said Det Supt Ronayne.

"The gang arranged for him to go to London at a cost. So he basically became slave labour. It's modern slavery."

'Very clandestine'

He travelled to the UK via Dover with five others in the back of a lorry.

He was housed in London before being sent to Birmingham to work in a nail bar and then on to a cannabis factory in Keynsham Avenue, Newport.

"It's quite a sophisticated set-up," said Det Supt Ronayne of the cannabis factories.

"There are a number of gangs operating across the country. The reason it's sophisticated is because in Vietnam if you become known to the police it's a different regime you're dealing with so they have to be very clandestine."

Mr Nguyen became a lone farmer, known as a ghost, in the cannabis factory - a job which many Vietnamese people are skilled at after years of tending the rice paddies back home.

A few months later - after Mr Nguyen was accused of aiding a robbery at the factory - his gamble in leaving Vietnam ended tragically when he was beaten and left for dead at a hospital.