National Crime Agency (NCA)

Return to News21 June 2017 Cocaine and heroin weighing just over 10 tonnes has been seized from boats in the Mediterranean and Atlantic ocean over the last few months as a result of NCA activity and intelligence sharing. The latest was 1.2 tonnes of cocaine on board a South American fishing vessel, seized by Spanish officers on 12 June after a joint National Crime Agency and Spanish National Police operation, assisted by Venezuelan and US authorities. Officers boarded the Petra 900 nautical miles south west of the Canary Islands, recovered 40 bales of cocaine hidden on the vessel, and arrested six Venezuelan crew. Earlier the same month, over a tonne of heroin was s…

Return to News21 June 2017 A Polish lorry driver responsible for smuggling almost 100 kilos of heroin into the UK has been jailed for 18 years, following a multi-agency operation led by the National Crime Agency.
 
 Robert Miszkjiel, 50, was part of an organised crime group arrested in June 2015. Eleven people pleaded guilty and were jailed in 2016 for 146 years. Miszkjiel pleaded not guilty and was the only member of the group to face trial. On 26 June 2015 officers from the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (TITAN) observed the co-ordinated delivery and collection of large quantities of heroin from Miszkjiel’s lorry at Lymm motorway service station on the M6.
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Home News Operation Stovewood: Three men arrested on suspicion of child sexual abuse offences Return to News 21 June 2017 Three men were arrested yesterday (20 June) in connection with the National Crime Agency's Operation Stovewood, the independent investigation into non-familial child sexual exploitation and abuse in Rotherham between 1997-2013. The men, aged between 33 and 38, were arrested on suspicion of a number of offences including conspiracy to rape, causing or inciting a girl under 16 to commit gross indecency and indecent assault. All three were arrested at seperate locations in Rotherham and Sheffield and have been released under investigation. To date…

Return to News19 June 2017 Convicted money launderer, Raj Koli, has been sentenced to 6 years and 9 months for failure to pay his £1.6 million confiscation order. Koli (DOB - 27/02/1976) was originally arrested in October 2007 following the handover of more than £400,000 cash linked to an organised crime group in South London. In April 2009 he was sentenced to 5 years, later reduced to 3.5 years on appeal. A confiscation order for £1.6m was made against Koli in January 2011. He was given 6 months to pay with a default sentence set at 7 years imprisonment. Koli was also made subject to both a Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO) and a Financial Reporting Order (FRO), t…

Return to News18 June 2017 A forfeiture hearing has seen €380,000 and £55,000 taken from two men who were sentenced to eight years imprisonment for money laundering. The men were arrested in November 2016 after officers from the joint NCA and Met Police Organised Crime Partnership (OCP) stopped Yuanbin Zhao who was carrying a rucksack outside an address in Barrett Street, West London. On searching the rucksack officers recovered approximately €300,000 including bundles of €500 notes. In 2010, UK money exchanges stopped selling €500 notes after analysis suggested up to 90% of them were in the hands of organised crime. When officers entered the Barrett Street address, t…

Return to News17 June 2017 The Head of the NCA’s Information Department has praised “exceptional family, friends colleagues and management” – and said he wanted them to share in the award of his British Empire Medal. Gavin Lambert said he was “enormously proud and humbled” to receive the accolade in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours, adding that he had not expected to have such high-level recognition. He also dedicated his award to the workers and volunteers at Different Strokes – a good cause he chairs – who helped him on the road to recovery after having a stroke himself seven years ago. Gavin received the BEM for his charity work as well as services to law enforc…

Return to News15 June 2017 A computer hacker has admitted stealing hundreds of user accounts from a US military communications system. Sean Caffrey, 25, of Sutton Coldfield, accessed and stole the ranks, usernames and email addresses of more than 800 users of a satellite communications system, as well as of about 30,000 satellite phones. He pleaded guilty at Birmingham Crown Court today to an offence under the Computer Misuse Act. The theft from the US Department of defence (DoD) took place on 15 June 2014. Officers from the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) and West Midlands Police arrested Caffrey in March 2015 after intelligence showed the hack originated from …

Home News Operation Stovewood: Man charged with 21 child sexual abuse offences Return to News 15 June 2017 A man has been charged with 21 child sexual abuse offences in Rotherham as part of the National Crime Agency’s Operation Stovewood. Tony Chapman (41) from Lindley Street in Rotherham is charged with sexually abusing three girls, one aged 16 and two under the age of 16, between 1998 and 2015. Chapman faces 7 charges of rape, 12 charges of indecent assault, one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one of affray. He has been released on bail until his next hearing on 18 July 2017 at Sheffield Magistrates Court. Operation Stovewood is the NCA’s investiga…

Return to News15 June 2017 The wife of a fraudster who made millions clocking cars and selling drugs has lost her share in business units worth more than £1M after the National Crime Agency won a legal battle against her. Jacqueline Hemingway, 49, had a mortgage for seven business units in Ossett, West Yorkshire, where her husband Adrian Hemingway cultivated a cannabis farm. Hemingway, 52, is serving a six-year jail term for failing to pay a £2.2M confiscation order made against him in 2009 when a judge ruled the units were acquired through mortgage fraud. This followed his conviction for car clocking and other frauds. He is also serving a consecutive four-year sente…

Return to News14 June 2017 The National Crime Agency has seized assets worth £600,000 from an organised crime group linked to wine and mortgage fraud. 

NCA officers seized two flats and the freehold title for the flats' building after making a civil recovery order under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

 The properties were believed to be bought with the proceeds of crime by the defendants John George Evans, 34, his wife Josephine Evans, 34, his brother Richard Lee Evans, 29, and their mother Joan Ann Evans, 58.

 Officers also seized £288,341 from bank accounts belonging to John Evans, his wife and mother. The money was what remained from the sale of a property in B…

Home News Joint investigation leads to number of firearm charges Return to News 13 June 2017 Two men have been charged with seven firearms offences after they were arrested by armed officers from the National Crime Agency. Zahid Ali (33) from New House Place, Highfield, Huddersfield and Fitz OBrian Mahoney (39) from Halls Drive, Coventry were arrested on Sunday 11 June following a joint investigation involving the NCA, West Midlands Police and West Yorkshire Police. Mahoney was arrested in Hinckley Road in Coventry and faces five charges of possession of a prohibited weapon, selling or transferring ammunition to another, possession of ammunition without a firearms…

Return to News11 June 2017 Four people who used a North London hotel room to conduct their money laundering activities were today jailed today for nearly 12 years. In November last year National Crime Agency surveillance officers watched Yongheng Jin, a French national, meet with Marsel Meco, an Albanian national, in the car park of a hotel in North London. From the boot of a car the men removed a large black suitcase. Officers stopped Jin as he entered the hotel with the suitcase and found that it contained approximately £420,000. In Jin’s hotel room, officers recovered numerous items associated with money laundering including a cash counting machine, bundles of cas…

Home News Local councillor admits sharing child abuse images Return to News 09 June 2017 A 51-year-old man has been jailed after admitting to sharing indecent images of children via WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Richard Willis was arrested by National Crime Agency officers in December 2016, after digital evidence recovered in a wider NCA investigation identified that he had been using the messaging apps to send the photos. Willis, who was a Sleaford Town councillor at the time of his arrest, sent a number of images containing child sexual abuse, some of which were in the worst category possible. On 18 May 2017 Willis pleaded guilty to three counts of making and…

Return to News9 June 2017 A sex offender who secretly filmed naked children on a beach and had a hoard of 140,000 images of child abuse has been jailed for four years after an NCA investigation. Gary Davison, 56, admitted three counts of making indecent images of children and one of taking indecent images of children. He used a covert video recorder to film naked boys aged between five and nine on a beach in Majorca, Spain, during holidays over several years. On 25 March 2016 National Crime Agency officers raided Davison’s home in Hunt Lea Avenue, Lincoln, and arrested him. During interview he admitteddownloading indecent images of children for 15 years. NCA investi…

Home News Abandoned Dymchurch boat: 8 charged with people smuggling Return to News 08 June 2017 Eight men have been charged in relation to an alleged people smuggling operation which brought Albanian migrants across the Channel in small boats. Leonard Powell, George Powell, Alfie Powell, Wayne Bath, Alan Viles, Albert Letchford, Francis Wade and Sabah Dulaj, an Albanian national, all alleged members of a crime group were charged on 6, 7 and 8 June with conspiring to facilitate illegal migration. The charges follow a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation launched when an abandoned rigid hulled inflatable boat (RHIB) was discovered on a Dymchurch beach in May 2…