People buying drugs such as cocaine in Britain may be unwittingly helping to support the Russian military effort, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned.
“We could draw a really clear thread between somebody buying some cocaine on a Friday night, all the way through to geopolitical events that are causing suffering across the world,” Sal Melki, deputy director for economic crime at the agency, said.
The NCA says a billion-dollar money-laundering network is active in the UK and operating in at least 28 cities and towns, where couriers are collecting cash and converting it to crypto.
It has emerged that a company linked to one of the network’s bosses purchased a bank which is facilitating payments that are supporting the Russian military.
Sal Melki, deputy director for economic crime at the NCA, said: “For the first time, we are tying drugs trades in our community all the way through to the highest levels of organised crime, geopolitics, sanctions evasion, the Russian industrial military complex, and state-linked activity.”
The NCA said the enterprise benefited criminals all over the world, from Russian-speaking hackers with millions in cryptocurrency, to street gangs in Britain who had physical money they needed to launder.
The agency is leading an investigation – called Operation Destabilise – into Russian money-laundering networks supporting serious and organised crime around the world.
A picture of cash recovered as part of Operation Destabilise (photo: NCA/PA Wire)Since the launch of the operation, 128 arrests have been made with over £25m seized in cash and cryptocurrency in the UK alone.
“The networks disrupted through Destabilise operate at all levels of international money laundering, from collecting the street cash from drug deals, through to purchasing banks and enabling global sanctions breaches,” Melki said.
In December last year, the agency exposed two networks, TGR and Smart, which were working together to launder money for transnational crime groups involved in cyber crime, drugs and firearms smuggling.
The networks were known to help their Russian clients “illegally bypass” financial restrictions to invest money in the UK, according to the NCA.
Melki said the UK-based launderers connected to the same network are not just couriers but are instead individuals who are “sustaining an entire architecture that allows crime to pay in our country”.
Melki said the threat of these networks is “significant” and the NCA and its partners “will not stop”.
He added: “With over 120 arrests, we are making a difference and have significantly restricted these networks’ ability to operate in the UK.
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“But there are other networks like them and it is imperative we continue to arrest, prosecute, seize and sanction, and deny these criminals access to the financial services they exploit.”
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said: “This complex operation has exposed the corrupt tactics Russia used to avoid sanctions and fund its illegal war in Ukraine.
“We are working tirelessly to detect, disrupt and prosecute anyone engaging in activity for a hostile foreign state. It will never be tolerated on our streets.”
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