Snakehead thug guilty of smuggling immigrants

The brutal enforcer for a Chinese Snakehead gang was convicted yesterday of human trafficking and violence. Yong Zhang, himself an illegal immigrant, was smuggling into Britain 20 to 30 people a month at £15,000 each.

Yong, 35, known in the Chinese community as E Ba Di, which means Local Young Tyrant, was found guilty of conspiring to assist illegal entry, false imprisonment and grievous bodily harm.

His role was revealed after the savage beating of another illegal immigrant with a baseball bat and knuckle-duster, to force his mother in China to pay £15,000 to release him.

One of Yong's foot soldiers, 30-year-old Yu Xin Zhou, of no fixed address, who appeared with him at Blackfriars Crown Court, London, was convicted of false imprisonment and blackmail. Both men will be sentenced later and Yong, of Tottenham, north London, also faces deportation.