To the hordes of passers-by, the neatly coiffed man taking a call outside a smart Middle-Eastern restaurant looks like any other proprietor taking care of business during a busy evening shift.
Even the well-heeled clientele inside the establishment, in the heart of a wealthy London suburb, appear oblivious to the sinister dealings going on around them.
For Pavel Vinto, 36, the boss of this swish Iraqi-Kurdish restaurant, helps ‘hundreds’ of migrants enter the UK illegally by laundering cash from his kebab house in Ealing, west London, for people traffickers in northern France. And he does so right under the noses of affluent locals – and the police.
But today, rather than chatting to another lucrative customer, as he believes he is doing, the Iraqi money man is spilling his secrets to an undercover Mail on Sunday reporter.
Shocking footage, filmed with a hidden camera inside Vinto’s thriving diner, reveals how underground banking networks are syphoning hundreds of millions of pounds a year to facilitate record Channel crossings – while operating in plain sight on Britain’s high streets.
Sir Keir Starmer has made stopping the flow of money that facilitates people trafficking a key tenet of his vow to ‘smash the gangs’.
But The Mail on Sunday tracked down Vinto’s enterprise with astonishing ease, begging the question as to how he has been able to operate so brazenly.
Our undercover investigation also shines a light on the ‘hawala’ system, an untraceable means of money exchange favoured by smugglers and migrants that protects them from the authorities.
Pavel Vinto, 36, the boss of this swish Iraqi-Kurdish restaurant, helps ‘hundreds’ of migrants enter the UK illegally by laundering cash from his kebab house in Ealing
For Pavel Vinto, 36, the boss of this swish Iraqi-Kurdish restaurant, helps ‘hundreds’ of migrants enter the UK illegally by laundering cash from his kebab house in Ealing
Our undercover reporter said he and four friends were travelling from Albania and were seeking passage to the UK. Picture: Stock image
The National Crime Agency (NCA) has said that hundreds of millions of pounds are being transferred to and from the UK using this method, with restaurants, car washes and even carpet stores acting as fronts.
To unearth these secretive networks, the MoS first made contact with an Iraqi trafficker based in Dunkirk, who was advertising his services on TikTok.
Our undercover reporter said he and four friends were travelling from Albania and were seeking passage to the UK.
The smuggler, who gave his name as Asoo, told the reporter to go to Hotel de Bretagne outside Dunkirk train station – an area notorious for migrant gatherings – but that payment should be made beforehand to a contact in London.
‘I give you a shop in London,’ the smuggler said. ‘You put the money there as a guarantee. When you get to the UK, I take the money.
‘If you don’t get to the UK, you go and take your money back. No problem. But if you have cash, no problem – pay me before you get in the boat.
‘If you have money in Turkey, no problem. Afghanistan, Iraq, London – anywhere.’
Our reporter said he had a friend in London who could make the payment there.
A second undercover reporter met Pavel at his restaurant at 8pm on a balmy Saturday evening
Shocking footage, filmed with a hidden camera inside Vinto’s thriving diner, reveals how underground banking networks are syphoning hundreds of millions of pounds a year to facilitate record Channel crossings
The smuggler then sent an address for a Middle Eastern restaurant in Ealing, which we are not naming for legal reasons, and a telephone number for a man named Pavel.
In a phone conversation to set up a meeting, Pavel sought to reassure his prospective client that it wasn’t a scam. ‘Brother, it is not only you,’ he said. ‘I have one hundred people.’
A second undercover reporter met Pavel at his restaurant at 8pm on a balmy Saturday evening.
It appeared to be doing good business, with customers on red leather sofas chatting. Pavel’s slicked-back hair and bulging biceps were enough to let anyone know he meant business.
At one point, he was seen clasping a pair of pliers as he grinned menacingly at our reporter.
Soon, it was time to talk cash.
The payment was agreed at £1,500 per person. For the proposed five migrants, this came to a total of £7,500.
‘You know brother, I am dealing with all the people,’ Pavel explained. ‘It’s like insurance.’
‘You know brother, I am dealing with all the people,’ Pavel explained. ‘It’s like insurance.’
Traffickers, (with their faces covered) try to manage the scene using sticks as migrants wade into the water to be collected by a small boat at sunrise
He continued: ‘It [the money] is going to stay until they arrive. I’m going to wait for a call from you.
‘So, they’re going to come to London. They’re going to disappear for two, three days. They’ll be taken to a hotel… Then they call you saying we are here. Then you’re going to call me back. “Pavel, they are here, safe.” Then I’m going to transfer the money to them [the smugglers] in France. That’s how it’s going to be.’
He added that there would be a £100 fee per person to transfer the money.
In most hawala exchanges, however, cash is never physically transferred. Instead, it is a transfer of debt.
Usually, the money is first paid to the hawala agent in the UK to facilitate the crossing.
Once the migrants have arrived in England, the UK broker then owes this money to the smuggler in Dunkirk.
If money needs to be sent in the opposite direction, the debt evens out and the agents take a percentage of the transaction as a fee.
The system is legal in the UK, provided a broker registers with the Financial Conduct Authority, and is commonly used by immigrants to send cash home to their families.
![Pavel continued: ¿It [the money] is going to stay until they arrive. I¿m going to wait for a call from you'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/07/05/21/100041381-14878549-image-m-23_1751746411311.jpg)
Pavel continued: ‘It [the money] is going to stay until they arrive. I’m going to wait for a call from you’
Vinto, pictured, told our reporter he has run his restaurant for only two-and-a-half years, the same amount of time he has lived in England
But the informal process makes it attractive to criminals, who leave no trace, and to the migrants, as it acts as a guarantee and protects them from being scammed.
The NCA has described this process as ‘criminal escrow’.
As a Somalian hawaladar admitted in a UN report last year: ‘In the hawala system, we don’t ask questions. We only offer the service.’
But Vinto’s description of the arrangements suggests he knew just what the money was for: facilitating the record 20,000 small-boat migrants who have reached Britain in the first half of this year.
Vinto told our reporter he has run his restaurant for only two-and-a-half years, the same amount of time he has lived in England.
Before that, he lived in Germany, but prefers it here, he said. No surprise, given his current residence in Kingston upon Thames, an affluent area of south-west London.
Astonishingly, NCA officers had previously arrested a Kurdish man connected with the same restaurant on suspicion of money-laundering offences. The arrest was not connected to Vinto.
Before that, he lived in Germany, but prefers it here, he said. No surprise, given his current residence in Kingston upon Thames, an affluent area of south-west London
The Ealing restaurant is far from the only high-street establishment to be acting as a money exchange for people smugglers. An Iranian carpet business in London was found to be operating as a front in a network of bankers transferring money for people traffickers following an NCA investigation.
Asghar Gheshalghian, 48, was jailed for eight years after phone evidence revealed his links with at least eight Iranian migrants who later arrived in the UK by boat or lorry and claimed asylum.
And a car wash franchise in Caerphilly, Wales, was busted after the NCA discovered it was a front for a people-smuggling ring.
The Prime Minister has claimed that freezing the assets of those who aid illegal migration will allow the UK to ‘break’ their business model.
The Government is set to introduce a new sanctions regime by the end of this year, designed to stop individuals using the UK to launder cash for smugglers.
Announcing his plans in January, Sir Keir said: ‘If you’re going to smash a gang that is driven by money, follow the money.’
But critics have argued the measures are too minor to stop small-boat crossings.
The Prime Minister has claimed that freezing the assets of those who aid illegal migration will allow the UK to ‘break’ their business model
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, pictured, said: ‘Labour is allowing people smugglers and their money men to operate right under their noses with impunity’
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Labour is allowing people smugglers and their money men to operate right under their noses with impunity.
‘Their laughable claim to smash the gangs lies in tatters. Labour’s tinkering around the edges is making no difference. So far, 2025 has been the worst in history for illegal immigrants crossing the Channel.
‘Only a removals deterrent will actually stop this – so every illegal immigrant arriving here is immediately removed to a location outside Europe.’
An NCA spokesman said: ‘Tackling organised immigration crime, including that facilitated via the hawala banking system, remains a top priority for the NCA because the criminal groups involved put lives at risk and threaten the UK’s border security.
‘We have around 80 investigations ongoing into the highest harm people-smuggling networks impacting the UK and are working with partners at home and abroad to disrupt and dismantle them.
‘We’d like to thank the Mail for providing this information, which we are examining more closely.’
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Criminal hawaladars are not welcome in the UK. They should be in no doubt they will face the full force of the law. Illegal money laundering for people smugglers can result in 14 years in prison.’
