This is the moment police raided a store in east London during an investigation in which £2.5 million in cash and gold was seized.
Two men who played key roles in the network have now been convicted for their involvement in laundering more than £14 million linked to serious and organised crime groups operating across the UK and overseas.
Ali Raza, 43, was sentenced to six years in prison, reduced to four years and eight months based on his guilty plea and time served on an electronic tag.
Adeel Aslam, 42, who was found guilty by a jury, was sentenced to three years reduced to two years and two months due to time served on an electronic tag.
The investigation, which was a joint City of London Police and National Crime Agency partnership, formed part of Operation Venetic, the UK‑wide response to intelligence obtained from the EncroChat encrypted communications platform.
Messages recovered from the platform showed that Mr Raza and Mr Aslam laundered funds on behalf of international organised crime groups, with Mr Raza running the criminal enterprise from a corrupt money service business in East Ham.
Some £14 million was laundered between March and June 2020, as criminal transactions were disguised as a front for processing cash linked to drug supply networks.
The charges relate to that three‑month period, but it is believed that the wider network under Mr Raza’s control may have smuggled or transferred more than £190 million between May 2019 and June 2020.
Ali Raza
City of London Police
Adeel Aslam
City of London Police
Senior members of organised crime groups were observed delivering substantial sums to Mr Raza, including a £1 million cash drop by a Russian organised crime network.
Raza was arrested in June 2020 in an underground car park in Walthamstow, where officers found him wearing a homemade money belt packed with £150,000 in £50 notes.
Later searches found £1.3 million in cash in a safe at his business premises, $300,000 at his home, and further assets in a safety deposit box in east London.
Detective Inspector Weller, from the City of London Police Serious Organised Crime Team, said: “As the UK grappled with the challenges of the Covid‑19 lockdown, Raza and his associates were laundering vast sums of criminal cash, communicating under the presumed anonymity of EncroChat.
“Their network laundered money for multiple organised crime groups, enabling offenders to introduce illicit cash into the legitimate economy. Money laundering on this scale fuels and emboldens organised crime, with criminals paying a commission to have the proceeds of crime cleaned.
“By targeting sophisticated money laundering networks, the City of London Police Serious Organised Crime Team degrade the illicit finance infrastructure in London and disrupt wider criminality.
“The partnership between the City of London Police and the National Crime Agency was instrumental in securing today’s sentences, and we remain committed to working together to tackle money laundering and illicit finance.”
A Western Union premises was raided.
A spokesperson for the financial services firm said: “The video in question is from 2020. Following the raid, we suspended the location immediately. We worked closely with law enforcement authorities to assist them in their work. Since then, the location has not provided Western Union money transfer services at any time.”
