32 arrested in trans-European anti-drug operation

May 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 26 (IANS/EFE) At least 32 people have been arrested in an anti-drug and anti-trafficking operation across Europe conducted by 750 police officials from Europol, the European Union’s criminal intelligence agency.

Twenty people were arrested in Spain and 12 in Britain Tuesday, in a joint operation in London and Spain’s Costa del Sol. The operation also included house searches in the Ireland capital Dublin as well as in Belgium and Cyprus, and was carried out jointly by Ireland’s An Garda Siochana police, the Spanish National Police, SOCA and the Belgian police.

A 53-year-old Irish-born British gangster Christopher ‘Christy’ Kinahan was arrested Tuesday at his mansion in Costa del Sol, Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) said Tuesday.

Kinahan was arrested by the Spanish National Police along with several of his family members, a number of British and Irish citizens and four Spanish attorneys, SOCA said.

In a statement released in Warsaw, Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said Kinahan’s organisation is connected to several crimes including murder, drug and human trafficking.

Rubalcaba said the trans-European operation showed that ‘political cooperation works’.

‘The scale of this joint operation by law enforcement agencies from so many countries is an indication of how prolific we think this network was,’ SOCA director Trevor Pearce said.

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500 Euro note disappears on crime link

May 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The 500 Euro note is no longer available in the UK, after officials stopped its circulation on the basis of evidence that over 90 per cent of demand in the country came from criminals.

Banknote wholesalers – the companies that supply money service bureaux – have stopped supplying the note after evidence from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) showed that over 90 pe cent of UK demand came from criminals.

The 500 Euro note, however, has not been criminalised. People will still be able to pay it into bank accounts here if they bring it back from abroad, but they will no longer be able to get hold of it over the counter in the UK.

SOCA officials said that crime was a cash-based business and paying large amounts of cash into the banking system attracted unwelcome attention.

Instead, criminals tried to reduce the bulk of the cash as far as possible and move it undetected out of the country.

Exchanging low denomination notes for high denomination notes has historically been a favourite way of doing this, and the phenomenon is seen globally, regardless of the currency.

However, this is the first formal analysis of the UK market, and for the first time there is hard evidence of the scale of criminal abuse of the 500 Euro note.

The SOCA announcement means that accessing 500 Euro notes will be much more difficult.

Anyone trying to source them will attract attention.

There will be a significant increase in the risk to criminals attempting to move and launder money.

Left with larger volumes of cash to manage, it will be harder to conceal their movements and harder to take cash through borders undetected.

In addition, SOCA and its partners in the financial sector, in law enforcement, at borders, and internationally will now be watching for changes in demand for other high denomination notes and any other activity that criminals might turn to in an attempt to get over this obstacle.

SOCA Deputy Director Ian Cruxton said: “There is no doubt that the main UK demand for the 500 Euro note comes from serious organised criminals.

The banknote wholesalers have shown decisive leadership in withdrawing supply.

This is a bold and welcome move which will cause substantial disruption to criminals’ ability to move and launder large quantities of cash.

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Drugs, money-laundering ring with ‘links’ to Premier League busted

March 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, Mar 23 (ANI): British and French police have busted a huge drug and money-laundering operation run by British gangsters which might have links to Premier League football transfers.

The police officers raided a number of upmarket homes in two isolated villages of France’s Dordogne region.

There they found drugs and thousands of pounds worth of used notes, along with luxury cars including Aston Martin DB9s and Mercedes SLKs.

There have been at least four arrests in connection with the enquiry, all of British nationals who claimed to have moved to France ‘for the good life’; The Sun quoted an investigating officer, as saying.

One claims he was regularly receiving cash payments for his work with UK-based football agents.

The enquiry began in May 2009 when one man was arrested in a car travelling from Narbonne, on the south coast, to the city of Toulouse.

Police found half-a-million pounds worth of used notes in a hidden compartment in the boot of his Mercedes, along with traces of cocaine.

The cocaine is thought to have been delivered from Spain, after arriving in boats from Africa, but there is also an allegation that some of the cash was linked to agents or other parties involved in the lucrative and notoriously unregulated trade in footballers, the paper reports.

The investigating officer added: “He told us that all the money came from professional footballer transfers in England. Those arrested say they had links with big names in the world of Premiership football.”

The investigation is being coordinated by Britain”s Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) and the Toulouse judicial police, the paper reports. (ANI)

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