A group of couriers who smuggled cash into Dubai as part of a £100 million money-laundering operation have been sentenced in the UK.
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 from criminal groups in the UK – believed to be the profits of drug deals – and took it to counting houses, usually in rented apartments in central London.
In less than a year, couriers communicating via a WhatsApp group called Sunshine and Lollipops flew on 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 the operation was broken up in an operation led by the National Crime Agency.
Jo Emma Larvin, 44, Jonathan Johnson, 55, Amy Liane Harrison, 28, Nicola Esson, 56, Muhammad Ilyas, 30, Stacey Borg, 41, Megan Reeves, 31, and Beatrice Auty, 26, have all been sentenced for their part in the smuggling operation.
“What you did was critical to the scheme. What you all did was not merely act as couriers, you were not just facilitating the cleaning of this dirty money, you were key to bleaching it,” Judge Sarah Paneth told them.
“Once you reached Dubai and performed your role in clearing it through customs, it [the money] was instantly gleaming white.
“You, the flyers, would be asked to go to a coffee shop in central London, you were collected there by a chauffeur Mercedes limousine, the suitcases would then be collected from various private properties nearby, so you had no accepted knowledge of the location of money.
“You would be accompanied by Ms Auty to the airport, and once there you would be directed to go to a particular desk and check in the cases. There is evidence that you arrived shortly before check-in closed, that would minimise the chances of it being seized at Heathrow.”
Auty, who was arrested following NCA raids in May 2021, travelled the same route to Dubai in July and August of that year, checking in seven suitcases containing £3.4 million.
Czech citizen Zdenek Kamaryt, who was convicted of money laundering in March 2021, joined her on the second trip.
Auty was involved in the logistical arrangements for another 16 trips, helping to pack cash into suitcases, accompanying travellers to Heathrow and collecting empty suitcases when they returned so they could be used again.
Prosecutor Julian Christopher KC told Isleworth Crown Court it estimated she was involved with £30 million worth of smuggling in total.
Auty's barrister Ahmed Muen said she “had been an aspiring lawyer but now finds herself before your honour and stands in the dock for sentence by your honour”.
He told the court that during a low point in her life, she had become “besotted” with Kamaryt, who was “an older man of significant wealth”, and it was through him that she became involved in smuggling.
She has been jailed for three and a half years.
Larvin made two trips to Dubai, in August and September 2020, one with Amy Harrison when they took seven cases between them containing £2.2 million and another with her partner Jonathan Johnson, when they took eight suitcases containing £2.8 million.
Larvin and Johnson were arrested at Manchester Airport in March 2022.
She was sentenced to two years in jail, suspended for two years, while Johnson received a 12-month sentence suspended for two years.
Harrison made three trips between July and September 2020, taking 15 suitcases containing about £6 million. He was also sentenced to two years jail, suspended for two years.
Esson and Borg of Pudsey, West Yorkshire, were arrested in May 2021.
Esson travelled from Heathrow to Dubai on three occasions in August and September 2020, checking in 19 suitcases with a combined weight of almost half a tonne. She was sentenced to 22 months, suspended for 24 months.
Megan Reeves, 30, from Doncaster, was arrested alongside Tara Hanlon in October 2020, with five suitcases between them containing £2 million.
Messages showed the pair had known each other since 2017.
At the time, Reeves claimed they were going on a “girly holiday” to Dubai but communications showed she intended to make 13 trips to clear debts of £39,000.
Muhammad Ilyas was arrested by NCA officers at Heathrow Airport after in February 2020 after arriving on a flight from Dubai.
He had checked in four suitcases at the airport ten days earlier, one of which had gone missing, and declared almost £1.5 million in cash to Dubai Customs.
The missing suitcase was subsequently found by Border Force officers and contained £431,360 in cash.
He has been sentenced to 15 months, suspended for 24 months.
The gang members flew business class so they could take more luggage with them and declared cash once arriving in Dubai, handing over a letter authorising them to carry it from a company called Omnivest.
Money laundering expert and technical adviser from HM Treasury Lesley Hayton said coffee and air freshener had been secreted in the suitcases to put sniffer dogs off the scent of cash.
Hamid Al Zaabi, director-general of the UAE's Executive Office of Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism, said: ''This case is a practical example of how the UAE and UK are working closely to increase co-operation and co-ordination on illicit financial flows as intelligence sharing and joint operation capabilities are enhanced.
''We will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with the UK in the global fight against illicit finance.''
