A sophisticated Kurdish organised crime network, operating openly on Britain's high streets, has been unmasked, with its ringleader identified as Shaxawan Jamal, also known as Kardos Mateen or simply 'the accountant'. This illicit enterprise, dubbed the 'King of the Mini Mart', orchestrates a thriving black market for jobs, primarily targeting asylum seekers. It offers the promise of substantial profits from selling contraband cigarettes and vapes, creating a powerful incentive for illegal immigrants to travel to the UK.

The nationwide syndicate reportedly comprises over 100 outlets, including mini-marts, barbershops, and car washes. These businesses employ complex scams, such as a system of 'ghost directors', to ensure their continued operation despite scrutiny from investigators. Undercover reporters from the BBC secretly filmed Shaxawan explaining how he and his associates facilitate migrants in establishing illegal businesses using fabricated company details. A key tactic involves frequently dissolving businesses after about a a year, only to reopen them with minor alterations to official paperwork.

The Daily Mail's investigation further revealed a network of companies controlled by Kardos Mateen, who is recorded with 20 directorships and claims to be a 37-year-old British citizen. These companies manage mini-marts staffed by asylum seekers who lack the legal right to work in the UK. The businesses are typically situated in run-down and deprived areas across towns and cities, stretching from Newcastle to Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, with a significant concentration in the North West and Yorkshire, and a few in the Midlands.

These types of establishments have been flagged by the National Crime Agency as potential fronts for more serious criminal activities, including drug-trafficking, people-smuggling, modern slavery, and child sexual exploitation. Investigations into 20 premises linked to Shaxawan's network found that the majority were staffed by men who identified as Kurdish, Iranian, or Iraqi. Many spoke minimal English and were unable to provide details about their employers, with several claiming they were merely 'helping out'. While legitimate trade appeared slow, shops selling contraband goods at heavily discounted prices demonstrated a booming business.

For instance, at The Spon Minimarket in Coventry, a reporter was offered 50 grams of Amber Leaf rolling tobacco for just £5, a product that retails for over £43 in supermarkets. Lasha, a 21-year-old Iranian asylum seeker, stated he had worked at the shop for a year. Similarly, Ahmed Mahmood, 31, from Turkey, worked at Kidderminster Local (formerly The Kiddy Mini Market) for minimum wage, having been there only a week. Workers at other locations, such as Del Boy's Shop in Nuneaton, Nova International Supermarket in Blackpool, Blackpool Mini Market, Oswaldtwistle Mini Mart, International Store in Westhoughton, City Mini Mart in Manchester, and Mix Shop in Huddersfield, provided varied accounts of their origins, employment duration, and wages, ranging from £4 to £12.21 per hour. Many expressed unawareness of any illegal activities.

The network exploits the precarious situation of asylum seekers, who are barred from working in the UK while their claims are processed. Facing lengthy application delays, organised gangs capitalize on a seemingly unlimited workforce recruited from asylum seeker hotels. While some migrants are offered the chance to run stores, others are reportedly coerced into working 14-hour shifts for as little as £4 an hour. The sophistication extends to online operations, with Facebook groups brazenly advertising mini-marts for sale and others featuring Kurdish builders offering to construct hidden compartments to conceal contraband during police raids and evade sniffer dogs.

In a BBC exposé, Shaxawan boasted to an undercover reporter about having 'customers in every city' and detailed the ease with which asylum seekers could take over a shop, earning thousands of pounds weekly from illegal tobacco sales. He claimed he could set up a company, provide bank cards and card machines, and handle utility and landlord negotiations. Furthermore, he boasted of working with a group capable of removing immigration fines for a fee, specifically mentioning an 'English woman' in Huddersfield who could reduce a £45,000 fine to zero for £3,500 by transferring liability to 'ghost names', such as Hungarians. Operating from a registered solicitor's office in Huddersfield, he even connected reporters with a paralegal who offered to 'make documents' and 'business agreements' to circumvent fines.

Surchi, a failed Kurdish asylum seeker running the Top Store mini-mart in Crewe, offered to sell his shop for £18,000. He revealed paying an individual named 'Hadi' approximately £250 a month to be officially named on paperwork, with Hadi reportedly having 40 to 50 shops under his name. Surchi admitted to never paying council tax, enabling him to evade immigration enforcement, and claimed he received a mere £200 fine from Trading Standards after a raid. HMRC estimates that the illicit trade in cigarettes and vapes costs the UK at least £2.2 billion in lost revenue annually.

When confronted by the BBC, Shaxawan Jamal categorically denied all allegations, insinuations, and claims made against him. In response to these revelations, the Home Office has launched an investigation. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood stated that 'illegal working and linked organised criminality creates an incentive for people to come here illegally' and vowed to combat it. She highlighted the government's increased raids by 51 per cent, the raising of fines for businesses to £60,000 per person found working illegally, the seizure of millions of pounds worth of unlicensed goods, the banning of 'dodgy directors', and the removal of over 35,000 individuals with no right to be in the UK.