The National Crime Agency say they can ‘draw a really clear thread between someone buying some cocaine on a Friday night in the UK and the Russian military complex’
A billion-pound money laundering network active in the UK bought a bank in Kyrgyzstan to fund the Russian war effort in Ukraine.
The global operation, based in Moscow, links Britons “buying cocaine on a Friday night” to the “highest levels of organised crime” and the “Russian industrial military complex”, the National Crime Agency revealed on Friday. It takes dirty cash from crime gangs for a fee and exchanges it for untraceable cryptocurrency, hiding illegal profits from police.
The network has also been used by the Russian state to fund espionage, including a seaside spy ring jailed earlier this year, the NCA said.
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Sal Melki, Deputy Director for Economic Crime at the NCA said: “For the first time we are tying drug trades in our community all the way through to the highest levels of organised crime, geopolitics, sanctions evasion, the Russian industrial military complex and state-linked activity. We can draw a really clear thread between someone buying some cocaine on a Friday night all the way through to geopolitical events that are causing suffering around the world.”
Mr Melki said the Russian Intelligence Services attempted to use the network to provide funding to Bulgarian spies, led by Orlin Roussev, who were jailed in May at the Old Bailey. Roussev, Biser Dzhambazov, Katrin Ivanova, Tihomir Ivanchev, Ivan Stoyanov and Vanya Gaberova were members of a unit based in a 33-room Great Yarmouth guest house.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said: “This complex operation has exposed the corrupt tactics Russia used to avoid sanctions and fund its illegal war in Ukraine. We are working tirelessly to detect, disrupt, and prosecute anyone engaging in activity for a hostile foreign state. It will never be tolerated on our streets.”
Russian national Ekaterina Zhdanova, 39, the head of a cryptocurrency network called Smart, is the mastermind of the operation. She was sanctioned by US authorities in November 2023 for allegedly moving money for Russian elites.
Among the gangsters using the laundering service is the notorious Kinahan organised crime group. A company linked to the network owns a controlling stake in Kyrgyzstan-based Keremet Bank which has been involved in purchasing items for the Russian military, the NCA said.
Through Operation Destabilise, the NCA and its partners are targeting the network that operates in at least 28 UK cities and towns. In the second phase of the operation, a further 45 suspected money launderers have been arrested and over £5.1 million in cash seized in less than a year. The NCA has supported its international law enforcement partners in seizing more than £20 million from the network.
Since its inception, there have been a total of 128 arrests, with over £25 million seized in cash and cryptocurrency in the UK alone. Mr Melki said: “These are not people laundering fifty quid down the bookies, these are serious criminals doing high numbers that are willing to pay a fee to have the proceeds of their crime laundered. This is happening up and down the country.
“Today we can reveal the sheer scale at which these networks operate and draw a line between crimes in our communities, sophisticated organised criminals and state sponsored activity. The networks disrupted through Destabilise operate at all levels of international money laundering, from collecting the street cash from drug deals, through to purchasing banks and enabling global sanctions breaches.”
