National Crime Agency (NCA)

Return to News29 July 2017 A fraud boss and his associate must give up cash and assets worth £355,000 after National Crime Agency (NCA) investigators exposed a multi-million pound fraud. Ex-businessman Aqeel Khan, 40, of Bradford (pictured), was ordered to pay £166,104.77 within three months at Leeds Crown Court. He faces two years in jail if he fails to pay and would still owe the money when released. Landmark properties Khan is serving a six-year prison sentence after leading a fraud campaign against financial services firms and using the proceeds to buy some of Bradford’s landmark properties. His total benefit from fraud was £4m, the court ruled on Thursday. The …

Home News Arrests in connection with alleged people smuggling attempt Return to News Officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) today arrested two men, foreign nationals aged 31 and 44, in the Leyton area of London. The arrests were in connection to an ongoing investigation into an attempted illegal facilitation of migrants into the UK from France using a light aircraft which took place on Monday 17 July. The arrests follow collaborative work between the NCA and its law enforcement partners in France. Anyone with information about suspicious activity involving light aircraft or small airfields should contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 or contact police on 101,…

Return to News24 July 2017 An ex-lorry driver encouraged what he thought was a 13-year-old girl to send him indecent images telling her: “I like young girls they look sexy”. Stephen Brown, 37, used the Kik social media messenger in May 2015 to begin talking to a person he thought was called Lauren, aged 13. Discovering her age he said he was 34 and made the comment: “I like young girls they look sexy”. Brown asked her to send him a picture because he wanted to see if she looked "HOT". After a series of more suggestive comments Brown, formerly of Milner Close, Caterham, Surrey, asked: "Can any one see ur phone" before sending an image of an erect penis. Brown talked …

Return to News21 July 2017 A convicted drug dealer’s associates are being urged to help claw back £1.5M he owes to the public purse. Damien O’Connor, 53, was extradited from Belgium and jailed for 20 years in 2009 at Liverpool Crown Court over a conspiracy to import 18kg of heroin and 20kg of cocaine. In December 2010, O’Connor – who has ties to Lancaster, Morecambe and Liverpool – was ordered to pay £1,021,300 – the figure he was judged to have benefitted by after drug dealing. He was given until June 2011 to pay it. When he failed to do so he was given another 1,974 days in jail. O’Connor, who is thought to own properties in Belgium, Holland and Spain, eventually…

Home News Repeat gun offenders back in prison and facing longer behind bars Return to News 21 July 2017 Two men have been sent back to prison and could have their sentences extended after pleading guilty to four firearms offences, including possessing a firearm when prohibited for life. Fitz OBrian Mahoney (39) from Halls Drive, Coventry and Zahid Ali (33) from New House Place, Highfield, Huddersfield were arrested in June 2017 by officers from the National Crime Agency’s Armed Operations Unit (AOU). Both had previously been convicted of possessing firearms and ammunition and were on licence at the time of their arrest. On Sunday 11 June, surveillance officers fr…

Return to News20 July 2017 Two dark web marketplaces used to traffick drugs, guns and other illegal commodities have been taken permanently offline following a coordinated international operation. The sites, known as Alphabay and Hansa, facilitated hundreds of thousands of criminal transactions a year. The FBI-led strike against AlphaBay took place on July 4, while the Dutch police operation against Hansa was completed at 3pm today. Illicit sales The NCA supported the FBI operation against Alphabay, providing intelligence and specialist capabilities along with international partners such as Europol. Both sites were hosted on the so-called dark web. Pages on the da…

Return to News 20 July 2017 A Palestinian man suspected of heading an organised crime group that smuggled around 100 Syrian migrants a day into western Europe has been extradited to Greece. Jamal Owda, aged 28, lost his appeal against extradition in May but could not be removed due to an asylum claim which has now been rejected. Owda, who was apprehended by National Crime Agency officers on a European Arrest Warrant in December 2015 at an asylum seekers’ shelter in Liverpool, was handed over to the Greek authorities on Tuesday. He was taken from Athens to Thessaloniki yesterday where he will remain in custody until his trial. No date has been set yet. Owda was one of…

Return to News 20 July 2017 A Palestinian man suspected of heading an organised crime group that smuggled around 100 Syrian migrants a day into western Europe has been extradited to Greece. Jamal Owda, aged 28, lost his appeal against extradition in May but could not be removed due to an asylum claim which has now been rejected. Owda, who was apprehended by National Crime Agency officers on a European Arrest Warrant in December 2015 at an asylum seekers’ shelter in Liverpool, was handed over to the Greek authorities on Tuesday. He was taken from Athens to Thessaloniki yesterday where he will remain in custody until his trial. No date has been set yet. Owda was one of…

Home News NCA report and accounts 2016-17 Return to News 20 July 2017 The National Crime Agency has today (Thursday 20 July) published its annual report and accounts and laid them before Parliament. The report shows the agency’s finances for the financial year 2016/17, and its performance against three broad areas of threat: • Prosperity, including cyber and financial crime; • Vulnerability, including child sexual exploitation, modern slavery, human trafficking and organised immigration crime; and • Commodity, including firearms and drugs. Introducing the report NCA Director General Lynne Owens said: “The dedication and commitment of our officers, and the man…

Return to News19 July 2017 Five men believed to be victims of a human trafficking network have been rescued in an NCA-led operation. The five are thought to have been trafficked into the UK from Slovakia and forced to work with little or no access to the money they earned. A man and woman, both aged 41, who are linked to a car wash business in Bristol, were arrested in the Brentry area of the city. They are believed to be part of a wider organised crime group and have been taken into custody for interview. They are also being investigated over associated money laundering and fraud offences. NCA officers, supported by Avon and Somerset Police, arrested the pair on Tu…

Return to News14 July 2017 Eight heroin traffickers from Birmingham were jailed for almost 140 years today (14 July) following a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation. The group, whose conspiracy to import heroin from Pakistan to the UK inside industrial equipment was worth up to £10m, were imprisoned for a total of 139 years and four months at Birmingham Crown. Ringleaders Ameran Zeb Khan, 38, Mohammed Ali, 36, and Sajid Hussain, 32, were sentenced to 22 years each. Hussain was sentenced to another 9 months for another offence. The men organised two container shipments from Lahore, via Karachi, to the London Gateway Port in February and July 2014. The second s…

Home News Moped drug gang ‘manager’ jailed again Return to News 14 July 2017 The last member of an organised crime group who ran a moped delivery service for class A drugs has been jailed for seven years. The group bragged in a text message, sent to over 400 potential clients, that they could deliver anywhere “…within 30mins central London and within an hour anywhere else”. Patrick Maloney (62) from Walworth, London - known as ‘Badger’ - was responsible for managing the younger members of the group and directing them where to deliver the drugs, using modified mopeds with ‘knowledge’ boards to mimic trainee taxi drivers. He was also in charge of the weekly cash pa…

Return to News12 July 2017 A youth worker who watched a live stream of a six-year-old boy being raped and urged on the attacker was jailed today following an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA). Darren Williams (pictured top), 44, of Newport, is the first to be sentenced of four men, including a primary school teacher, convicted of child sex offences in relation to the online chat room where the rape was streamed. Eleven years Williams was jailed for 11 years at Cardiff Crown Court today (12 July 2017) for his part in the rape, which took place in July 2015. He had pleaded guilty to a charge of encouraging or assisting the rape of a six-year-old boy and …

Home News Updated list of active ancillary orders published Return to News 12 July 2017 The NCA has published an updated list of spreadsheet active ancillary orders (155 KB) to support its lifetime management of serious offenders. Ancillary orders are designed to frustrate criminality, both in and out of prison. They include Serious Crime Prevention Orders, Financial Reporting Orders and Travel Restriction Orders. They can restrict the number of mobile phones or computers that offenders can access, limit the amount of cash they can carry, require them to surrender passports and provide financial information at regular intervals. The NCA rigorously enforces these o…

Return to News10 July 2017 Two men have been to sentenced to a total of eight years in prison after they admitted creating and running an online chat channel dedicated to viewing and sharing indecent images of children (IIOC). Brett McBain (51) from Balham, London and David Buckley (54) from Goole, Humberside set up #TheOtherPlace in 2014 describing it as “a channel for the respectful appreciation of youthful beauty”. David Buckely (left) and Brett McBain In reality, #TheOtherPlace saw up to 60 users at a time sharing links to as many as 2,500 IIOC in any 24 hour period, including the most severe category A images. An accompanying blog provided information on how to…