{"id":1295,"date":"2023-04-27T06:02:47","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T04:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dhcab.com\/?p=1295"},"modified":"2023-04-27T07:43:34","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T05:43:34","slug":"useful-idiot-jailed-over-london-dubai-cash-smuggling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dhcab.com\/?p=1295","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Useful Idiot\u2019 Jailed Over London-Dubai Cash Smuggling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Money laundering mastermind handed more than 9 years in prison<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Couriers carrying cash flew 83 trips to Dubai in two years<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>By Jonathan Browning and Olivia Fletcher<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>April 27, 2023 at 8:01 PM GMT+4 <em>Updated on <time datetime=\"2022-07-29T07:47:10.180Z\">April 26, 2023 at 11:47 AM GMT+4<\/time><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ringleader of one of the UK\u2019s largest money laundering operations was jailed for nine years and seven months after investigators caught couriers smuggling suitcases packed with bags of cash flying to Dubai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Abdullah Mohammed Ali Bin Beyat Alfalasi arranged for a network of couriers to fly \u00a3104 million ($127 million) of street cash to Dubai over nearly two years through to October 2020, the National Crime Agency said. Alfalasi pleaded guilty earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The couriers were given business class flights to take advantage of a larger luggage allowance and check-in closer to the departure time, investigators said. Around \u00a3500,000 was crammed into suitcases that were then packed with coffee granules or sprayed with air freshener to disguise the scent from sniffer dogs. In total more than 80 flights were taken.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere is no doubt that this was a considerable network under your charge, not your sole charge, you were a principal but it is clear that there were others involved,\u201d Judge Simon Davis said handing down the sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>British police have targeted London to Dubai laundering routes, concerned that criminal cash becomes much harder to trace when it\u2019s taken out of the country. The United Arab Emirates has been in the spotlight over dirty money flows and in\u00a0March, the global financial crimes watchdog placed the country on a gray list for failing to do enough to uncover illicit funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Police arrested the Emirati at an apartment belonging to his wife in London\u2019s upmarket Mayfair district last year. Alfalasi offered a \u201cmoney laundering service\u201d to criminal organizations in both the UK and other European countries, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe is the useful idiot in a way,\u201d Adrian Darbishire, Alfalasi\u2019s lawyer, said in court Thursday. The people behind the operation have found someone who is willing to \u201cstick their head above parapet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe has done something very bad and something very stupid and he is the one who finds himself in court saddled with the implications of \u00a3100 million,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The money, believed to be the profits from drug sales, was converted into dirhams in Dubai, the NCA said. The couriers were paid between \u00a33,000 and \u00a38,000 a trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCash is the lifeblood of organized crime groups which they reinvest into activities such as drug trafficking which fuel violence around the world,\u201d said Ian Truby, a senior investigating officer at the NCA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jonathan Browning and Olivia Fletcher April 27, 2023 at 8:01 PM GMT+4 Updated on April 26, 2023 at 11:47 AM GMT+4 The ringleader of one of the UK\u2019s largest money laundering operations was jailed for nine years and seven months after investigators caught couriers smuggling suitcases packed with bags of cash flying to Dubai. 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