On November 21, the National Crime Agency (NCA) announced that it had dismantled a money laundering network worth billions of dollars, exposing complex links between domestic street crimes and cross-border financial activities.
This is the latest development in the destabilise Campaign - a campaign to crack down on economic crimes led by the UK. To date, the campaign has made 128 arrests and seized more than £25 million in cash (equivalent to $22.7 million) and cryptocurrencies in the UK.
According to NCA, the network revolves around two Russian criminal groups codenamed Smart and TGR. These groups specialize in laundering money for cybercriminals, smuggling and organizing fundraising from drug trafficking activities in the UK. A part of the illegal money is converted through the cryptocurrency system, then rotated abroad through many intermediary channels.
The most notable discovery of the investigation is that the network secretly seized Keremet Bank - a bank in Kyrgyzstan - on Christmas Day 2024. The deal was conducted by Altair Holding SA, a company believed to be involved in the TGR group leader.
After taking control of the bank, the system used Keremet Bank as a transit station to push cash flow to Promsvyazbank (PSB) - a Russian bank that provides financial services to many sectors, including key industries.
According to the NCA, this transit mechanism helps money flows be "cleaned" and blended with other international transactions, thereby avoiding detection in the context of increasingly tightening global financial monitoring orders. The US Treasury Department previously mentioned Keremet Bank in its list of organizations to watch for the risk of being taken advantage of in illegal financial activities.
Mr. Sal Melki, Deputy Director for Economic Crimes of NCA, said this is the first time the authorities have recorded a long-running chain of linkages from community drug trafficking to large-scale international financial activities.
He described the scale of the network as amazing and stressed that criminal groups have used hundreds of carriers in more than 28 cities to collect cash, often at parking lots along highways.
Keremet Bank has previously denied any allegations of being sanctioned by the US Treasury Department, while affirming that the bank operates according to the principles of transparency and is ready to appeal.
The NCA said that despite a strong attack on the network, the threat is still high and the scanning will continue in the coming time.
