84 arrests as UK smashes Russian money-laundering, ransomware and drugs network

A MULTI-billion-pound moneylaundering scheme involving drugs, ransomware and espionage linking Russian oligarchs to UK crime groups and rogue financial firms has been smashed in a British-led operation.

- Paul Jeeves

There have been 84 arrests, including 71 in the UK, after the National Crime Agency cracked a chain in 30 countries using two Moscow-based financial networks.

So far, the NCA and its partners have seized £20million in cash.

Operation Destabilise can be revealed as the US Office of Foreign Asset Control announces sanctions against network heads.

As well as enabling UK criminals, financial firms Smart and TGR laundered money for transnational crime groups such as the Kinahan crime syndicate which sends huge amounts of drugs and firearms into the UK.

Guns

They also helped Russian elites to illegally bypass financial restrictions to invest money in the UK. The networks collected funds in one country and made the equivalent value available in another, often by swapping crypto for cash.

This streamlined cash movement while laundering crypto for cyber criminals and helping the Russian oligarchs dodge Western sanctions.

The network has also been used by the Russian state to fund espionage.