National Crime Agency (NCA)

Return to News16 October 2017 A university academic who dubbed himself ‘evilmind’ and ‘666devil’ has today pleaded guilty to 137 charges including encouraging the rape of a four-year-old boy, in a landmark National Crime Agency investigation. Geophysicist Dr Matthew Falder, 28, of Edgbaston, Birmingham, who is originally from Cheshire and a Cambridge University graduate, appeared at Birmingham Crown Court where he admitted the offences. The case is the agency’s first ‘hurt core’ prosecution. Hurt core refers to hidden dark web forums dedicated to the discussion and image and video sharing of rape, murder, sadism, torture, paedophilia, blackmail, humiliation and degrad…

Home News Clydebank man charged over cocaine importation Return to News 13 October 2017 A man from Clydebank has been charged with the importation and supply of class A drugs following a joint operation involving the National Crime Agency and Police Scotland. Officers raided a property on Drumry Road in Clydebank on Thursday 12 October where they arrested the 41-year-old. The raid followed a seizure of cocaine by Border Force officers at Coventry International Parcel Hub on 9 October. The arrested man remains in custody and is expected to appear before Dumbarton Sheriff Court on Monday 16 October. NCA Scotland operations manager John McGowan said: “We have preve…

Home News Three-year sentence for sex offender who watched live abuse Return to News 11 October 2017 A man who watched live footage of a four-year-old girl being sexually abused has been sentenced to three years in prison following a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation. Matthew Abbot, 34, of Coombe Dale, Bristol, was one of several users who logged into an online chat room dedicated to sharing and discussing images of child abuse. He watched as a man streamed video of himself abusing the girl and carried on watching after the user showed the abuse was live by flashing his thumbs up. While logged into the chatroom Abbott is also believed to have seen pre-re…

Home News Suspicious Activity Reports Regime Annual Report 2017 published Return to News 11 October 2017 The pdf Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) Annual Report 2017 (895 KB), spanning the 18 months between October 2015 and March 2017 inclusive, has been published today. The report indicates that over 634,000 SARs were received by the UK Financial Intelligence Unit (UKFIU) during this period with £56.5m in assets denied to criminals. The SARs Regime Committee decided in March 2016 to change the reporting period to match the financial year to enable better statistical comparison with other financial data. Future SAR Annual Reports will cover April to March. The SA…

Return to News10 October 2017 Two men have been sentenced to a total of almost 13 years in prison for supplying high purity cocaine to Londoners. Latif Lito, 35, and Ghenadie Borta, 34, were arrested on 2 August 2017, following an investigation by the National Crime Agency and Met Police Organised Crime Partnership (OCP). Officers moved in to detain the pair in a pub car park on Jack Cornwell Street in East London after they saw Borta fill a rucksack with six kilos of cocaine from his van and hand the bag over to Lito. Forensic examination of the drugs found that it was 91% pure, giving it a potential street value of £600,000. Officers searching Borta’s van discovered…

Home News Longer sentence for Arbroath man who smuggled stun gun and pepper sprays in the post Return to News 10 October 2017 A man from Arbroath has had his prison sentence increased to five years after attempting to import offensive weapons, including a stun gun disguised as a torch and five CS pepper sprays in the post. The weapons, which were addressed to 41-year-old Maitland Cuthill, had been seized by Border Force officers at a postal depot near Heathrow. Cuthill was arrested after National Crime Agency investigators raided his home in North Tarry in August 2015. During the raid, officers recovered another stun gun shaped like a baton. Forensic analysis of C…

Home News Guns and drugs seized as 12 are arrested in cross-Channel investigation Return to News 9 October 2017 Twelve people, including a serving Border Force officer, have been arrested as part of an international operation targeting a crime group suspected of importing drugs and firearms. On the morning of Friday 6 October the Border Force officer, a 36-year-old man from the Dover area, was detained by French police at a location near Calais. Three other British nationals were also arrested at the scene. All four remain in French custody. Eleven firearms, comprising nine handguns and two revolvers, were recovered, along with magazines and suppressors. Frenc…

Return to News7 October 2017 An international law enforcement operation has resulted in the seizure of close to four tonnes of cocaine from a vessel in the mid-Atlantic. Acting on NCA intelligence, Spanish authorities intercepted the vessel – an ocean going tugboat named Thoran – on 1 October, approximately 400 miles from the Spanish coast at a point between Madeira and the Azores islands. An extensive search resulted in the discovery of 165 individual packages of cocaine, hidden in a sophisticated concealment beneath the galley floor. Each package contained around 23 kilos of powder, amounting to a total of approximately 3,700 kilos of cocaine seized. While the …

Return to NewsTwo men have been convicted of being part of an organised crime group which used a corrupt baggage handler to smuggle drugs through London’s Heathrow Airport. Preetam Mungrah, 43, of Thornton Heath, London, and Wilfred Owusu, 30, of Stoke Newington, London, were found guilty of conspiring with baggage handler Joysen Jhurry, 40, to import cocaine worth more than £9 million into the UK on Thursday 5 October following an eight week trial at Kingston Crown Court. The prosecution followed an 18 month National Crime Agency investigation, culminating in their arrests in December 2016. NCA surveillance officers would watch as Jhurry arranged to move suitcase…

Return to News Michael Kellar, 58, of Park Road in Bilston was arrested by Border Force officers at Birmingham Airport on 3 April 2017 after tins of dried milk powder containing almost four kilos of cocaine were found in his luggage. He had just arrived on a flight from Montego Bay, Jamaica. Kellar had previously been arrested, but never charged, in connection with a previous importation of cocaine into Gatwick Airport in March 2012. On that occasion officers carried out checks on a suitcase that had been apparently abandoned on the baggage carousel. Inside they found 4.7 kilos of liquid cocaine, potential street value £375,000, inside tins of fruit punch. The …

Return to News4 October 2017 Twelve men aged between 33 and 38 are due to appear in court charged with 44 child sexual abuse offences including rape, indecent assault, supply of controlled drugs and false imprisonment as part of the National Crime Agency’s Operation Stovewood. Amjal Rafiq (38) and Nabeel Kurshid (34) from Warwick St, Rotherham, Iqlak Yousaf (33) from Tooker Road, Rotherham, Mohammed Imran Ali Akhtar (36) from East Rd, Rotherham, Tanweer Ali (36) from Godstone Rd, Rotherham, Aftab Hussain (38) from York Rd, Rotherham, Abid Saddiq (36) from Walter St, Rotherham, Sharaz Hussain (33) from Fitzwilliam Rd, Rotherham and Salah Ahmed El-Hakam (38) from Tudor Cl…

Home News UK man watched girl being sexually abused online Return to News 29 September 2017 A man from Hampshire has been given a ten year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) after watching the sexual abuse of a four-year old girl via an online video streaming forum. Gareth Gascoigne-Leopold, 35, from Tadley, Hampshire was one of six individuals from the UK who logged into the forum while the abuse was streamed live for a global audience in December 2015. He was arrested as he landed at Gatwick airport having travelled back from Spain in December 2016. On the 4th July 2017, he was charged with intentionally encouraging and/or assisting the commission of an …

Home News Operation Stovewood: Man charged with nine sexual abuse offences Return to News 29 September 2017 A 44 year-old man has been charged with rape and sexual assault as part of the National Crime Agency’s Operation Stovewood. Darren Hyett, from Broom Chase, Rotherham has been charged with three counts of raping a female under 16, two counts of raping a female over 16, two counts of sexual assault against a female under 16 and the trafficking of persons for sexual exploitation. The offences are alleged to have taken place between between 2004 and 2007. Hyett also faces one charge of perverting the course of justice. He has been released on bail until his n…

Home News Cash and cocaine recovered in organised crime group investigation Return to News 28 September 2017 An Albanian man in possession of false Italian identification documents has been charged with conspiracy to supply class A drugs, after an estimated £250,000 of cash and cocaine with a potential street value of £4.9m was recovered at an address in Buckhurst Hill, Essex. Mark Gorini, 25, was arrested at a petrol station on High Road, Buckhurst Hill on Wednesday 27 September by officers from the joint National Crime Agency and Metropolitan Police Service Organised Crime Partnership (OCP). A search of the car he was driving revealed two one-kilo blocks of coc…

Return to News28 September 2017 A convicted drug trafficker is paying back just £6 a week on a £172,000 confiscation order – despite accruing daily interest of £36.99 a day. Tarn Bowler-Degen, 31, of Southville, Bristol, was the head of a cannabis trafficking operation and was jailed for seven years and six months in 2011. He was found in possession of approximately 14 kg of cannabis and investigators proved his crime group had previously supplied more than a ton of cannabis. He was convicted of conspiracy to possess drugs with intent to supply. Bowler-Degen, formerly of Kensington, London, was judged to have benefited from his crimes by £172,468 and a judge ruled in…