Passport crook helped crime fugitives flee
‘The Commander’ lured addicts in to use identities for gangsters
AN ARMED robber has been convicted of a passport scam helping Scots gangsters flee.
Ex-soldier Chris Zietek, 67, known as The Commander, supplied the dodgy documents for £5000-£15,000.
The scam saw fugitives assume identities of drunks and drug addicts to evade justice.
Killer Christopher Hughes, cocaine kingpins Barry and James Gillespie and hitman Jordan Owens were among those buying Latvian passports.
It was claimed Hughes used a phoney one to evade capture in 2018 after being held over a fight in a Portuguese kebab shop.
On Friday, Zietek and his sidekick Alan Thompson, 72, were convicted by a jury of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, conspiracy to make a false instrument and money laundering at Reading Crown Court.
Zietek was convicted of armed robbery in the 70s and became an enforcer for the Adams crime family in London.
Exploiting connections with Scots gangs, Zietek dreamt up the idea of producing foolproof passports for fugitives.
He recruited addicts in London and Kent and used their identities to apply for passports, substituting the photos for those of his customers.
Zietek’s clients included the Gillespies, of Rutherglen, Glasgow, who were wanted as part of a global probe into money laundering and drug dealing. They are believed to have been executed by cartel bosses while hiding out in Brazil.
Zietek supplied a Latvian passport to Glaswegian Hughes, 34, who was arrested in Italy.
He was caged for 25 years for organising the murder of crime writer Martin Kok outside an Amsterdam sex club.
Zietek also created a passport for Owens – on the run after murdering Jamie Lee in Glasgow in 2017 – but he was arrested in Portugal before it was handed over.
Zietek’s two children were acquitted of perverting the course of justice.
Another man, Anthony Beard, had already pleaded guilty and will be sentenced with Zietek on April 28.