A local man has been named for his role in a £100 million money laundering network which smuggled money out of the UK to the UAE.

Six members of the group have recently been sentenced following an investigation by the National Crime Agency - including a man from Slough.

The network transported cash to Dubai during 83 separate trips between November 2019 and October 2020, overseen by ringleader Abdullah Alfalasi, 48, who was jailed for more than nine years in July last year.

The couriers, who were paid around £3,000 for each trip and would be booked on business class flights due to the extra luggage allowance, communicated on WhatsApp groups, including one titled ’Sunshine and lollipops’.

Four individuals from London, North Yorkshire and Surrey were convicted following a trial at Isleworth Crown Court on 26 April this year.

Two other couriers from the same network were convicted at earlier hearings and were sentenced alongside them on Wednesday, July 12. 

Amongst them was Muhammad Ilyas, 30, from Slough, who was arrested by NCA officers at Heathrow Airport after arriving on a flight from Dubai in February 2020.

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 had made one previous trip in January 2021, declaring £1 million on that occasion.

Adrian Searle, Director of the National Economic Crime Centre in the NCA, said: “The laundering of such vast quantities of cash around the globe enables organised criminals and corrupt elites to clean or hide their ill-gotten gains.

“Cash smugglers work on behalf of international controller networks, who move the finances of the international drug trade, people traffickers, fraudsters and other criminal groups.

“This case demonstrates the continued commitment to crackdown on money laundering and target organised crime groups who cause misery and ruin lives.”

The network collected cash from criminal groups around the UK, which was mainly the profits of drug dealing, and took it to counting houses that were rented apartments in Central London.

The money was then vacuum packed and separated into suitcases, which would typically each contain around £500,000. They were sprayed with coffee or air fresheners in an effort to prevent them being found by sniffer dogs.

NCA senior investigating officer Ian Truby said: “These couriers smuggled cash out of the UK on an industrial scale, at the behest of organised crime groups.

“They were prepared to travel out to the UAE for a holiday in the sun, in return for a cut of the profit.

“This case demonstrates the NCA’s commitment to targeting the criminal networks involved in money laundering.

“Profits are often re-invested into criminal activities such as drug trafficking. This fuels violence and insecurity in the UK and across the world, which is why our investigation continues.”

Ilyas has been sentenced to 15 months in prison suspended for two years.