National Crime Agency (NCA)

Home News NCA statement on international cyber crime incident Return to News 12 May 2017 An NCA spokesman said: "NHS England, NCSC and the NCA are responding to an ongoing international cyber incident which is affecting UK hospital trusts. There is no indication that medical data or personal information has been compromised." Specialist cyber crime officers from the NCA and police forces are working with hospitals to help respond to the attack and preserve evidence. Advice on protecting yourself from ransomware is available here https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/protecting-your-organisation-ransomware Anyone who is a victim of ransomware should report at www.act…

Return to News 11 May 2017 Nine men and a woman who used a refrigerated van to try to smuggle cocaine and heroin through the port of Dover have been jailed for eighty-nine-and-a-half years. The sentences follow an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA) into a six-strong Liverpool-based organised crime group centred around Edward Avis, 64. NCA officers filmed Avis as he met his crew in the city’s parks, cemeteries and petrol stations in a bid to prevent his conversations being recorded. He was sentenced to 12 years today at Manchester Crown Court. His associates Ian Pauline, 51, Phillip Cray, 54, Paul Firth, 41, Darren Hunter, 49 and Terri M…

Return to News 8 May 2017 A convicted counterfeiter has agreed to hand over £34,714 after the NCA won a second confiscation order against him having discovered he had inherited a substantial sum. James Alfred Brook, 75, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in April 2006 for admitting conspiracy to make counterfeit currency. He had been arrested six months earlier after officers searched his home and seized counterfeit sterling, Euro and Bahraini dinar banknotes. In 2007, Snaresbrook Crown Court ruled Brook, of Sandgate Road, Folkestone, Kent, had benefited from his crime by £241,000. Based on funds that could be traced at the time, he was ordere…

Return to News 8 May 2017 We are aware of the material derived from the Freedom Hosting II hack and have received information today from The Times. Enquiries are live so we cannot comment further. Sites or forums that purport to contain indecent images of children will be investigated if reported to law enforcement. We work closely with international partners to ensure information or intelligence relating to child abuse images is shared to identify and hold to account those involved. The recent international investigation highlighted by the FBI - which led to a number of arrests across the world including within the UK - should act as a deterrent to anyone who think…

Return to News5 May 2017 A University of Cambridge Professor has admitted making, distributing and possessing indecent images of children. Prof. Simon Jarvis, aged 53, from Cambridge, was arrested in September 2016 by officers from the National Crime Agency. Following a forensic examination of seized electronic devices, Jarvis was charged with 12 offences including making and distributing images, possessing prohibited images and possessing extreme pornography. Sentencing him today at Cambridge Crown Court, Judge David Farrell QC said: "You are an intelligent man, a professor of English literature at the University of Cambridge. "As such, in my judgment, you must have…

Return to News5 May 2017 Two men jailed today had a total of more than 20,000 child sexual abuse images on their computers. National Crime Agency officers arrested Michael Gordon, 64, of Belfast and Philip Burns, 27, of Lisburn, in February 2016 as part of a wider joint investigation with the PSNI. The two men are not believed to have known each other. NCA forensic examiners found a cache of almost 10,000 images of child abuse and bestiality on Burns’s computers. He was convicted of 14 counts of making indecent images of children and four counts of possessing extreme pornography at Craigavon Crown Court in March. At the same court today he was sentenced 15 months’ i…

Return to News27 April 2017 A deadly synthetic opioid recently detected in heroin supplies in the north east of England could be present in drugs around the UK, the NCA has warned today. Fentanyl, which is up to 100 times stronger than street heroin, and its analogue carfentanyl which is 100 times stronger again, are believed to have caused several recent deaths in the Yorkshire, Humber and Cleveland areas. An NCA and West Yorkshire Police operation on Monday this week, targeting a laboratory suspected of producing fentanyl and carfentanyl, has led to concerns that the substances could have been distributed to drug dealers across a much wider area and that drug users i…

Home News NCA investigation into Rosyth cocaine importation Return to News 26 April 2017 A National Crime Agency investigation is underway following the seizure of around five kilos of high-purity cocaine, found on a trailer carrying metal that had come into Scotland on a ferry from Belgium. The drugs were detained by Border Force officers in late March, but details can only now be released. They were in a metal container secured underneath the flat-bed by strong magnets. The drugs would have had a wholesale value to organised crime of in excess of £200,000, but if cut and sold on the streets could have made much more. Investigators believe the trailer had been…

Return to News21 April 2017 A man who hid 50kgs of MDMA in the panels of his car told investigators he was going to a classic car auction at Silverstone. Dutch national Ewout Groenenboom’s haul of class A drugs had a street value of £2M. He was stopped on 28 July 2016 at the UK Control Zone in Coquelles, France, as he waited to board a train after driving from Rotterdam. Groenenboom, aged 57, from Rotterdam, who was driving a 2002-registered Volkswagen Polo, claimed he was going to a three-day auction but was only looking and would not be buying anything. He did not have a ticket for the auction or a hotel reservation for his stay and had booked a return train for th…

Return to NewsThe partner of suspected cyber criminal Ally Adam has been deprived of property and assets worth £1.6m following an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA). The NCA issued proceedings in the High Court in relation to Lu Han’s £725,000 house in London and money in ten bank accounts held in her and Adam’s names, on the basis that these were the proceeds of crime. The NCA believes Adam, deceased, was part of an international conspiracy to infect computers with the Dridex malware strain in order to steal bank details from their owners. Dridex is a banking trojan, also called Bugat or Cridex, distributed mainly via infected links in fraudulent email…

Return to News21 April 2017 The National Crime Agency has today published research into how and why some young people become involved in cyber crime. The report, which is based on debriefs with offenders and those on the fringes of criminality, explores why young people assessed as unlikely to commit more traditional crimes get involved in cyber crime. The report emphasises that financial gain is not necessarily a priority for young offenders. Instead, the sense of accomplishment at completing a challenge, and proving oneself to peers in order to increase online reputations are the main motivations for those involved in cyber criminality. During his debrief, Subject 7…

Return to News20 April 2017 Three gun smugglers have been convicted of importing illegal firearms through the post after an NCA investigation. Aaron Bishop, 39, and Martin Beard, 38, took delivery of guns ordered by lynchpin Mark Richards, 38, via the dark web. Father-of-two Richards, of Cramhurst Lane, Godalming, admitted conspiring to import prohibited Glock handguns and ammunition. A jury at Birmingham Crown Court convicted Beard and Bishop of importing firearms but cleared them of importing ammunition. (Left to right) Mark Richards, Aaron Bishop, Martin Beard Beard admitted production of cannabis and Bishop admitted possessing indecent images of children after N…

Return to News19 April 2017 A drug trafficker who handed himself in after three years on the run because the pressure was too much, was jailed yesterday for 14 years. Robert Gerrard, aged 53, pleaded guilty at Manchester Crown Court to conspiring to import 62kgs of cocaine into the UK in a series of consignments in May and June 2013. He travelled to Rotterdam and met international drug traffickers with the plan of importing the drugs from Latin America to the EU. Gerrard, from Liverpool, featured in the Operation Return fugitive campaign run by the NCA and Crimestoppers. The NCA appealed for help to find him following a raid in October 2013 on a Rotterdam café used…

Home News NCA warning on the dangers of fentanyl Return to News 15 April 2017 Tony Saggers, Head of Drugs Threat and Intelligence at the NCA, is warning drug users of the dangers of fentanyl. This class A synthetic drug is upwards of 100 times more potent than street heroin, with some analogues many more times potent again. Fentanyl is responsible for hundreds of deaths in North America, although until very recently has been extremely rare in the UK. The NCA is working closely with the police to assess the full extent of the risk it poses to heroin addicts in particular. Tony said: "We are aware there has been an increase in drug deaths this year in the UK, primar…

Home News Bentley was mobile bank and drug distribution hub Return to News 7 April 2017 An organised crime gang who used a tailor-made concealment in the roof of a Bentley to smuggle cocaine into the UK and cash out, have been jailed today for more than 100 years at Blackfriars Crown Court. Florentino Gonzales, 48, drove his Bentley between Belgium and the UK, using an underground car park at the Marlin Apartments, Southwark, to meet London based dealers and exchange the smuggled drugs for cash. He and five others were convicted in March for the drug trafficking conspiracy following an investigation by the joint NCA and Met Police Organised Crime Partnership (…