National Crime Agency (NCA)

Return to News11 November 2016 A nightclub boss who planned to take his HGV licence so he could import Class A drugs has been convicted of attempting to traffick cocaine into the UK. Tudor Williams, 46, plotted to import multi-kilo quantities of cocaine and amphetamine from Holland between 19 April and 21 May this year. On 21 May, National Crime Agency officers arrested Williams after he handed a carrier bag containing £32,625 to Mohammed Taj, 44, in the Sparkbrook area of Birmingham. Officers searched Williams’s home on Dulverton Avenue, Coventry, and found a further £19,970 in cash and several mobile telephones. Officers also searched Taj’s home address in Poplar R…

Return to News11 November 2016 A registered sex offender who pretended to be an 11-year-old girl online for his own gratification has been jailed for five years. Jonathan Wales, 41, masqueraded as a child and began talking to Simon Riley, 21, of Swansea who is currently serving 12 years in the US for counts including sexually exploiting a minor. Wales – who has previously been convicted of making and distributing indecent images of children and given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order – was identified by NCA officers after seizing Riley’s computers in September 2015. Believing a child was at risk, officers investigated and discovered Wales was using the fake p…

Return to NewsOrange juice drugs plot pulped 9 Nov 2016 Members of an organised crime group who smuggled cannabis into Northern Ireland in crates of orange juice were jailed for a total of three and a half years yesterday following an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA). Officers observed Mark Fleetwood, 53, and Paul Green, 63, both from Birmingham, packing 167kg of cannabis resin into a white van at a retail park in Camlough, Co. Armagh in April 2015. The drugs, which had a potential value to organised crime of £150,000 and a potential street value of £800,000, had been hidden among orange juice cartons in pallets imported from Spain via Dublin. Fleetwood…

Home News Operation Stovewood update – NCA arrest five men in Rotherham Return to News 9 November 2016 National Crime Agency officers today arrested five men in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, in connection with Operation Stovewood, an independent investigation into non-familial child sexual exploitation and abuse in the town between 1997-2013. The men were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to rape and have been taken to a police station in South Yorkshire where they will be interviewed by NCA officers. All five men were arrested at separate addresses in Rotherham. No further information about those arrested is being provided. Operation Stovewood is ongoing an…

Return to News4 Nov 2016 A former police superintendent convicted of four sexual offences against children following an investigation by the National Crime Agency was today sent to prison for 12 years. 
Last month, a jury found Gordon Anglesea, 78, of Old Colwyn, North Wales, guilty of abusing two children aged 14 or 15, following a trial at Mold Crown Court.
 Anglesea, a former superintendent with North Wales Police, abused one boy while working as a police Inspector at an attendance centre near Wrexham. The second victim was sexually abused at a private address while Anglesea was off duty.
 Roy McComb, NCA Deputy Director for Specialist Investigations, said: “Gor…

Home News NCA targets international cyber crime network Return to News 3 November 2016 Fourteen people were arrested in the UK today on suspicion of offences including laundering stolen money for international cyber criminals. The group is suspected to have laundered more than £11 million stolen using the Dridex and Dyre streams of malicious software (malware). NCA officers believe the malware was developed and deployed by skilled cyber criminals in Eastern Europe. The malware infects computers when the user receives and opens documents in seemingly legitimate emails, enabling criminals to gain access to their bank details. Investigators allege that the money wo…

Return to News31 October 2016 The National Crime Agency and National Counter Terrorism Policing have joined forces to appeal directly to the public for information preventing criminals and terrorists gaining access to firearms and ammunition #GunsOffOurStreets. The hard-hitting appeal, by two of the UK’s top officers, urges the public to call Crimestoppers with any information about illegally held weapons entering the country or being stolen from legitimate gun owners. With the current UK threat level from international terrorism remaining at severe, and at least 10 terrorist attacks foiled in the last two years, officers want to ensure that weapons do not enter the …

Return to News31 October 2016 The National Crime Agency and National Counter Terrorism Policing have joined forces to appeal directly to the public for information preventing criminals and terrorists gaining access to firearms and ammunition #GunsOffOurStreets. The hard-hitting appeal, by two of the UK’s top officers, urges the public to call Crimestoppers with any information about illegally held weapons entering the country or being stolen from legitimate gun owners. With the current UK threat level from international terrorism remaining at severe, and at least 10 terrorist attacks foiled in the last two years, officers want to ensure that weapons do not enter th…

Return to NewsFriday 28 Oct 2016 A software analyst has been sentenced for inciting a girl as young as eight to expose herself to him on a ‘talk to strangers’ website. Arran Gallagher, 28, of Lancaster, used the online chat and video site Omegle to target 10 victims and possessed thousands of images of child abuse. He pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court to seven counts of attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity and four counts of making indecent photos of children. He was sentenced to two years in jail suspended for two years, given a five-year sexual harm prevention order and told to undergo 50 hours of rehabilitation. The NCA launched …

Return to News28 October 2016 A couple who ran a diamond trading business have been convicted of money laundering at the Old Bailey after a joint investigation by the NCA and City of London Police. Danny Koort and Jeanette Rosen are thought to have laundered up to £53m for organised crime groups in under two years, based on diary entries showing their deals from January 2013 to November 2014. Koort was jailed for 11 years and Rosen 10 years. Dutch national Koort, 52, and Rosen, 48, both of East Finchley, London, used code names – such as Fiat, Honda, Champagne, Cristal and Caviar – in the diaries to refer to customers. Notes made on envelopes inside the diaries show…

Return to News28 October 2016 A couple who ran a diamond trading business have been convicted of money laundering at the Old Bailey after a joint investigation by the NCA and City of London Police. Danny Koort and Jeanette Rosen are thought to have laundered up to £53m for organised crime groups in under two years, based on diary entries showing their deals from January 2013 to November 2014. Koort was jailed for 11 years and Rosen 10 years. Dutch national Koort, 52, and Rosen, 48, both of East Finchley, London, used code names – such as Fiat, Honda, Champagne, Cristal and Caviar – in the diaries to refer to customers. Notes made on envelopes inside the diaries showe…

Home News Third 'Most Wanted' fugitive arrested in less than a week Return to News 27 October 2016 A suspected drug trafficker from Liverpool handed himself in yesterday after three years on the run, saying the pressure had become too much. Robert Gerrard, aged 53, made arrangements through his solicitor to meet National Crime Agency officers at Central Park Police Station in Manchester. He was arrested and charged with conspiracy to import cocaine. The arrest comes after two other fugitives – Matthew Sammon and Mohammed Alam – were captured in Spain as part of the Operation Captura fugitive campaign run by the NCA and Crimestoppers. Sammon was located in Fueng…

Home News Holidaymaker jailed after bringing back stun guns and truncheons Return to News 26 October 2016 A man who came back from a holiday with disguised stun guns and extendable truncheons hidden in his suitcases was sentenced to five years in prison today after an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA). Niall Dinsmore, 28, who had been on holiday in Bulgaria, was found with five of each of the weapons by UK Border Force officials at Edinburgh International Airport on 31 August last year. He said he had bought the batons and stun guns, which were disguised as torches, in a supermarket. Dinsmore pleaded guilty to possession of disguised firearms, pos…

Return to News 25 October 2016 A convicted rapist who was one of Britain’s most wanted fugitives was arrested yesteday afternoon in Tenerife. Bangladeshi national Mohammed Alam, aged 33, fled the UK before he was convicted in March 2010 and sentenced to 14 years in his absence for raping a woman in Cheltenham. Alam, who featured in the Operation Captura fugitive campaign run by the National Crime Agency and Crimestoppers, was apprehended at a restaurant in Playa de las Americas by officers from the Spanish National Police. Extradition proceedings will begin tomorrow when he appears at the Spanish National Court in Madrid. Alam was added to the Captura list in 2015 …

Home News New NCA CEOP Director announced Return to News 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. [Image: PSNI] 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 t…