National Crime Agency (NCA)

Home News Five charged in Heathrow smuggling investigation Return to News 15 December 2016 A baggage handler is among five men charged with conspiring to import cocaine and cannabis, following a National Crime Agency investigation into allegations of smuggling through Heathrow Airport. The five were among 11 people arrested in a series of NCA raids across London and the south east yesterday (Wednesday 14 December). They will all appear before Uxbridge Magistrates tomorrow, Friday 16 December. The remaining six, five men aged 26, 40, 51, 54 and 60 and a woman aged 24, have all been bailed pending further enquiries. Brendan Foreman, NCA regional head of investigati…

Home News Operation Stovewood: Three men charged with indecent assaults on child Return to News 14 December 2016 Three men have been charged with a total of 15 offences of indecent assault against a child in Rotherham, following an independent investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA). Riaz Makhmood, aged 38 (01/03/78), Sajid Ali, aged 37 (25/03/79) and Zaheer Iqbal, 39 (06/11/77), all from the Masbrough area of Rotherham, have been charged with assaulting a girl aged under 14 between June 1994 and June 1995. Riaz Makhmood faces three charges of indecent assault; Sajid Ali faces seven charges of indecent assault and Zaheer Iqbal faces five charges of ind…

Home News Arrests in Heathrow airport smuggling investigation Return to News 14 December 2016 National Crime Agency officers have today (Wednesday 14 December) arrested eleven people in connection with a major investigation into a number of airport workers and their associates, suspected of smuggling drugs through Heathrow. The ten men and a woman, all aged between 24 and 60, were detained following a series of coordinated raids involving around 125 NCA investigators, assisted by officers from the Metropolitan Police, Bedfordshire Police and Border Force, across London and the south east early this morning (right). Three of the men are baggage handlers working at …

Return to News12 December 2016 Thirty-three people have been arrested as part of a major European investigation into the smuggling of migrants from Iran to the UK, through various European transit countries. 24 of those arrested were detained in Greece as part of a joint investigation by the UK’s Organised Immigration Crime Taskforce, Project Invigor, and the Organised Crime Unit of the Hellenic Police with support from Europol. The men, aged between 26 and 45, were held after a series of raids in Athens on Thursday 08 December and were remanded in custody. All 24 were arrested for their suspected role in a transnational organised crime group (OCG) believed to be fac…

Return to News12 Dec 2016 Netspoof stresser was a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) programme that disabled web servers and websites by flooding them with massive amounts of data. Netspoof subscription packages ranged from £4 to £380 – with some customers paying more than £8,000 to launch hundreds of attacks. Where cybercrime has largely been seen as being committed by hackers with technical skills, stresser services allow amateurs – sometimes motivated by a grudge – to launch attacks easily and with little or no specialist knowledge. Victims have included gaming providers, government departments, internet hosting companies, schools and colleges. DDoS attacks are …

Home News Slovakian smuggler tried to use lorry to bring heroin and cocaine through border controls Return to News 9 December 2016 A Slovakian lorry driver who used his truck to import cocaine and heroin worth more than £5 million into the UK has been given an 11 year prison sentence, following an investigation by the National Crime Agency. Pavol Cizmar, 45, from Hornè Lefantovce in Slovakia, was intercepted at Killingholme ferry terminal in north Lincolnshire on 6 June 2016 as he drove off a ferry from the Hook of Holland. Border Force officers conducted a search of his vehicle, which was listed as transporting rolls of paper. In the trailer between the rolls th…

Return to NewsThe partner and fugitive drug-dealer son of a deceased Liverpool drug trafficker have been deprived of almost £2million of property and assets following an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA). Ann McGuffie, 69, and Simon McGuffie, 44, the family of convicted drug-smuggler Leslie McGuffie, were forced to give up £1,887,000 from two Luxembourg bank accounts, £94,831.20 from the sale of an apartment in Malaga, Spain and £9,563.49 in cash found in an apartment in Liverpool, a total of £1,991,394.69. The assets, which contained money amassed over ten years while Leslie McGuffie was on the run, were discovered after Leslie McGuffie’s death in 2012. …

Home News Director General thanks the NCA officers who go above and beyond Return to News 07 December 2016 An annual ceremony today recognised NCA officers, investigative teams and partners who have made an exceptional contribution to the agency’s work in protecting the public from serious organised crime. Nominations for consideration are made by fellow NCA officers. Those identified as exceptional go forward to receive a Director General’s Commendation, the highest acknowledgement of achievement within the agency. This year the commendations include: The NCA team coordinating the joint law enforcement, industry and government response to theft from underground…

Home News New NCA CEOP Director announced Return to News 6 December 2016 The new Director of the NCA’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command was confirmed today as Will Kerr, currently Assistant Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. ACC Kerr replaces Johnny Gwynne, who joined Police Scotland in September 2016 on promotion to Deputy Chief Constable. NCA Director General Lynne Owens said: “Will was an exceptional candidate and I am delighted to welcome him to the National Crime Agency. Under Johnny Gwynne’s leadership the NCA’s CEOP Command delivered significant change, working in partnership with others, which transformed the UK’s co…

Home News Non-executive directors appointed Return to News 1 December 2016 Two new non-executive directors have been appointed to the NCA board, Nicholas Alston CBE MA and Wendy Barnes. Nick has extensive experience of security, intelligence and policing. He was the first Police and Crime Commissioner for Essex from 2012-2016 having previously held senior positions within the security and intelligence community and in the private sector at Digital Barriers plc and Goldman Sachs. Nick is currently the chair of the new Policing Institute at Anglia Ruskin University. “I am delighted to have been appointed to the board of the NCA as a non-executive director and I am …

Return to News1 Dec 2016 A cloud-computing network used by cyber fraudsters to target one million users every week with malware-infected emails has been taken down by law enforcement agencies from more than 30 countries. The operation to dismantle the Avalanche cloud-hosting service was led by Europol, the FBI and German police and supported by partners from 30 countries including the National Crime Agency (NCA). It followed a four-year investigation by the German police. The cost to the global economy from fraud linked to Avalanche is estimated to have run to hundreds of millions of dollars. In a single day of coordinated action, more than 830,000 malicious web domai…

Return to News30 November 2016 Thousands of people in the UK are likely to be falling victim to sextortion every year, according to the National Crime Agency and National Police Chiefs Council. Sextortion is a form of blackmail where criminals use fake identities to befriend victims online and then persuade them to perform sexual acts in front of their webcam. These webcam images are recorded by the criminals who then threaten to share them with the victims’ friends and family unless they are paid. Sometimes there are escalating requests for further payment. At least four suicides in the UK have been linked to this form of blackmail. The NCA’s Anti-Kidnap and Extortion…

Return to News17 November 2016 A second report on the drug distribution model known as county lines has found that over 70% of police forces in England and Wales are now reporting established activity within their area. County lines typically involves an urban criminal gang travelling to smaller locations to sell heroin and crack cocaine. The group will use a single telephone number for customers ordering drugs, operated from outside the area, which becomes their ‘brand’. Unlike other criminal activities where telephone numbers are changed on a regular basis, these telephone numbers have value so are maintained and protected. The gangs tend to use a local property, gen…

Return to News15 November 2016 Jay Moore, 26, from Cromhall, Gloucestershire, was sentenced to six months at Bristol Crown Court, while a forfeiture order was issued for the computer. As well as failing to declare the laptop, Moore had use of three virtual private servers (VPS) – in effect giving him access to three further computers – and used software called CCleaner to erase data on the laptop’s hard drive. Moore’s SCPO was due to run for the maximum-allowable five years. Imposed on his release from prison in 2013, it restricted his use of computers, mobile phones and bank accounts, banned him from carrying more than £5,000 in cash and required him to tell the NCA a…

Home News Stun gun video boast leads to prison for Scottish holidaymaker Return to News 14 November 2016 A man from Paisley has been jailed after a video of him boasting of how he had a stun gun was found by National Crime Agency investigators. Henry Morton, 37, of St James Street, was stopped by Border Force officers at Glasgow Airport in September 2014 having just landed on a flight from Bourgas in Bulgaria. Inside his luggage they found two stun guns, disguised as iPhones. Morton maintained that he did not know the phones were weapons and had only bought them to listen to music on. However analysis of his real phone showed that he had sent messages offering …