Members of a crime group that smuggled almost £30 million in cash from the United Kingdom to the United Arab Emirates have been sentenced.
A National Crime Agency investigation found that the group worked with a British organiser based in Dubai to move the money on Emirates flights bound for Dubai. The flights left Manchester, Birmingham and Brussels airports between December 2017 and November 2019. The organiser, who is awaiting extradition to the United Kingdom and cannot be named for legal reasons, told associates to collect cash from organised crime groups and fly it out without declaring it on departure, as the law requires.
Couriers carried the cash in as many as five suitcases at a time, sometimes with help from Emma Rauf, a corrupt Emirates check in attendant at Manchester Airport. Rauf, 34, from Wilmslow in Cheshire, and her brother Ben Royle, 32, from London, were both involved in the arrangement. Rauf, whose maiden name is Royle, changed her plea to guilty on 23 March after first denying that she had entered into or become concerned in a money laundering arrangement to remove cash from the United Kingdom to Dubai.
Network members collected cash from criminal groups across northern England, including Manchester, Liverpool, Southport, Sheffield and Huddersfield. Couriers packed hundreds of thousands of pounds at a time into suitcases, concealed among clothes. In Dubai they were put up in expensive hotels, with meals and visits to nightclubs and beach clubs paid for.
The scheme began to unravel after £788,455 was seized at United Kingdom airports on three separate dates, prompting the National Crime Agency inquiry.
Sophie Logan, 31, who had been living in Dubai and was formerly of Derby, said she worked as a personal assistant to the alleged organiser. She flew to and from Dubai 38 times over two years and declared cash totalling £3.9 million on arrival in Dubai on 14 occasions. Devanyl Graham, 27, from Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, flew to Dubai 18 times and declared a total of £4 million on arrival.
Heather Jeffrey, 58, her son Sheldan Noel, 30, and her daughter Lamara Noel, 34, all from Bradford, collected cash from organised crime groups and flew it to Dubai. Jeffrey smuggled out £5 million over 10 trips, Sheldan Noel £5.4 million over 10 trips, and Lamara Noel £2.5 million over 10 trips. The alleged organiser used a WhatsApp group to instruct the three. Messages showed that Jeffrey was told to collect cash from Huddersfield and Sheffield in May 2018.
Ben Royle recruited a friend, Sheikh Jobe, 33, from Manchester, to fly £306,040 from Manchester Airport in October 2018. The cash was found in Jobe’s luggage after he had checked it in. He was arrested and the money was seized.
A jury at Bolton Crown Court convicted Graham, Sheldan Noel, Lamara Noel, Jeffrey and Logan on 4 June after a 12 week trial. Rauf changed her plea to guilty on 23 March. Royle and Jobe pleaded guilty at hearings before the trial began.
At the same court on 2 October, Logan was sentenced to seven and a half years’ imprisonment, Jeffrey to six and a half years, Graham to six years, Lamara Noel to five years, and Royle to four years and three months. Jobe was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 200 hours of community service. He was also given a three month curfew.
Rauf is due to be sentenced on 29 October. Sheldan Noel is due to be sentenced on 27 November.
National Crime Agency branch commander Jon Hughes said the group had smuggled enormous quantities of cash to keep it beyond the reach of law enforcement. He said illicit cash was the lifeblood of organised crime groups and fuelled violence and insecurity around the world. Disrupting that supply, he said, was a priority for the agency and its partners, because it hit crime groups where it hurt most.
International money laundering networks use cash smuggling, cryptocurrencies and banking systems to move billions of pounds of dirty money each year. The cash can come from the drugs trade, fraud, other illegal commodities, and activity linked to terrorism and conflict. The National Crime Agency’s National Economic Crime Centre works with partners across law enforcement, regulators and government to make it harder for organised criminals in the United Kingdom to launder the proceeds of crime, including by seizing cash, arresting launderers and closing gaps in the system.
By A.Ikechukwu
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