Beirut-bound Heathrow passenger admits to $1.3m money laundering

Mazen Al Shaar, from west London, faces a maximum of three years in prison in the UK

Mazen Al Shaar and the cash found with him at Heathrow Airport while he was travelling to Beirut. Photo: NCA

A passenger found with £1 million ($1.3 million) in cash in his suitcases at Heathrow Airport has admitted money laundering.

Mazen Al Shaar, 48, was on his way to Beirut when he was stopped by Border Force officers at the UK's biggest airport on March 15, and the money was seized.

Mr Al Shaar appeared at Isleworth Crown Court on Thursday and pleaded guilty to concealing, disguising, converting, transferring or removing criminal property under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Mr Al Shaar's barrister Andrew Bird told the court that his client is a person “of good character” who was “acting under direction” rather than being the owner of the cash.

The amount he was caught with is about £1 million, Mr Bird said, but the final figure will be revealed once the UK's National Crime Agency finishes counting the cash, which is being held in a warehouse.

Prosecutor Atticus Blick told the court he accepted the case put forward by Mr Al Shaar's legal team that he was acting as a courier. As such, the offence is being treated as if he was acting under coercion and not for personal gain, he said.

A scan showing the cash that was found in Mazen Al Shaar's suitcases. Photo: NCA

Judge Karen Holt said Mr Al Shaar will be sentenced on April 29 and the offence carries a maximum prison sentence of three years but his guilty plea entitles him to a reduction to about two years.

Al Shaar, a supermarket worker from Middlesex, had claimed he only had £500 in cash on him and was leaving the UK to visit family. But officers searched his three suitcases and two of them contained the huge cash haul. He was convicted following an investigation by the National Crime Agency.

NCA operations manager Peter Jones said: “Cash like this is the lifeblood of organised crime groups. So many of the serious and organised crime threats facing the UK are driven by offenders’ greed, their thirst for money.”

Mr Jones said Al Shaar's conviction has “punched a hole” in a “crime group’s finances and very importantly, taken a trusted money launderer out of use”.

The Home Office said the seizure “highlights Border Force's dedicated efforts to protect our borders and keep the public safe”.

“Our officers are trained to spot suspicious behaviour and identify attempts to move illicit cash and other prohibited items across our borders,” said a representative. “We continue to work closely with law enforcement partners including the NCA to disrupt criminal networks.”

Al Shaar's arrest came soon after customs officials at Beirut Airport arrested a man arriving from Turkey with a bag containing $1.4 million in cash.

A group of couriers who smuggled cash into Dubai as part of a £100 million money-laundering operation were jailed in the UK in 2023.

Heathrow Airport, where Mazen Al Shaar was arrested. AFP

Gang members were paid about £3,000 each to take business-class flights with money from drug deals vacuum-sealed and packed into suitcases, typically containing up to £500,000 and weighing 40kg each.

The network collected cash – believed to be the profits of drug deals – from criminal groups in the UK and took it to counting houses, usually in rented apartments in central London.

In less than a year, couriers communicating through a WhatsApp group called Sunshine and Lollipops took more than 80 flights carrying the money.

Their network smuggled more than £104 million from the UK to Dubai during 83 separate trips between November 2019 and October 2020.

They were overseen by Abdullah Alfalasi, 47, who was jailed for more than nine years in July last year after an operation led by the National Crime Agency.