Ripon couple spared jail after smuggling cash from United Kingdom to Dubai as part of £100 million money laundering network

Six members of a money laundering network which smuggled more than £100m out of the UK to the UAE have been sentenced following an investigation by the National Crime Agency.

The network transported the 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 were paid around £3,000 for each trip and would be booked on business class flights due to the extra luggage allowance.

Jonathan Johnson, 55, and Jo Emma Larvin, 44, both from Ripon, along with Beatrice Auty, 27, from London and Amy Harrison, 28, from Worcester Park in Surrey, were convicted following a trial at Isleworth Crown Court on 26 April.

Two other couriers from the same network were convicted at earlier hearings and were sentenced alongside them yesterday (12 July).

Adrian Searle, Director of the National Economic Crime Centre in the National Crime Agency, 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.”

Jo Emma Larvin made two trips to Dubai in August and September 2020, one with Amy Harrison when they took seven cases between them containing £2.2 million and another with her partner Jonathan Johnson, when they took eight suitcases containing £2.8 million.

Larvin and Johnson were both arrested at Manchester Airport in March 2022.

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.

Ian Truby, Senior Investigating Officer at the National Crime Agency, 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 National Crime Agency’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.”

At Isleworth Crown Court on Tuesday, Auty was sentenced to 42 months imprisonment, Johnson to 12 months (suspended for two years), Larvin to 24 months (suspended for two years), Harrison to 24 months (suspended for two years), Esson to 22 months (suspended for two years) and Ilyas to 15 months (suspended for two years).