National Crime Agency (NCA)

Return to News25 October 2016 pdf New figures released (1.59 MB) by the National Crime Agency’s UK Missing Persons Bureau (UKMPB) show an almost 20% increase in calls to report people going missing in the UK. The rise is due in part to improvements in police recording practices and the decision to combine missing and ‘absent’ data in the figures. In the financial year 2015/16 police forces in England, Wales and Scotland received 382,855 calls reporting people missing, compared to 321,992 in the year 2014/15. The calls in England and Wales related to 131,429 separate individuals, equal to 359 people going missing every day. The percentage of cases resolved within 24…

Home News Sex trade victims safeguarded in international crackdown Return to News 24 October 2016 More than 550 suspected sex trafficking victims have been helped to safety across Europe in an NCA co-ordinated operation. Operation Perceptional – the UK arm of Europol’s Operation Ciconia Alba - saw law enforcement agencies crackdown on organised criminal activity that enslaves victims into the sex trade. Joint action days - supported by safeguarding services, business leaders and charities – involved law enforcement agencies tackling the priority threat of modern slavery by targeting thousands of trafficking hotspots such as red light districts, brothels, suspect pr…

Home News Four charged over alleged irregularities at charityFour people have been charged with fraud offences after an investigation by the National Crime Agency. Bright, Efetobore, Samuel and Stephen Sodje were charged with fraudulent trading on Friday 21 Octobe Return to News Four people have been charged with fraud offences after an investigation by the National Crime Agency. Bright Sodje, 50, Efetobore Sodje, 34, Samuel Sodje, 37, and Stephen Sodje, 42, were charged with fraudulent trading on Friday 21 October and bailed until 14 November 2016, when they will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court. The four were arrested on 13 July after a three-year NCA inves…

Home News Cross-channel people smuggler behind bars in Belgium Return to News 21 October 2016 A member of a criminal network which smuggled up to 20 migrants a night into the UK has been extradited to Belgium to begin a lengthy prison sentence. Iraqi national Sleman Basak Ahmed, 33, was convicted in his absence by a Belgian court and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment while in custody in the UK. Investigators from the NCA and Belgian Federal Police identified Ahmed, and accomplice Shamel Omer Zorab, 37, as having collected payment from migrants who illegally entered the UK after being loaded into lorries at motorway service stations. The men were also found to have…

Return to NewsA former police superintendent has been convicted of four sexual offences against children following an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA). A jury at Mold Crown Court today found Gordon Anglesea, 78, formerly of North Wales Police, guilty of four sexual assaults. He was found not guilty of #######. The offences took place against two boys, then aged 14. Anglesea was found guilty of three sexual assaults against one boy while he was on police duty at an attendance centre near Wrexham. The other boy was sexually abused while Anglesea was off duty and at a private address. Anglesea, of Old Colwyn, North Wales, was arrested in December 2013 by o…

Return to News 21 October 2016 One of Britain’s most wanted fugitives was arrested the same day the National Crime Agency and Crimestoppers appealed for help to find him. Matthew Sammon, aged 45, from London, who was wanted on suspicion of making and possessing indecent photographs of children, was one of ten individuals revealed yesterday as part of Operation Captura - a multi-agency campaign to locate fugitives on the run in Spain. Following a tip off from a member of the public, who called both Crimestoppers and the Spanish authorities, Sammon was arrested by the Spanish National Police at a fairground site in Fuengirola at around 8pm where he had been living in a c…

Return to News20 October 2016 Ten more of the most wanted British fugitives believed to be hiding in Spain’s ex-pat communities have been revealed in a new appeal by independent UK crime-fighting charity Crimestoppers and the National Crime Agency (NCA). Publication of the latest list coincides with the 10th anniversary of Operation Captura, a multi-agency campaign which has seen 76 fugitives apprehended out of 86 publicised. The ten fugitives are wanted by law enforcement agencies in connection with crimes including murder, child sexual exploitation, drug trafficking, fraud, money laundering and serious assault. Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC, the Founder and Chair of Crime…

Home News Fraudster to hand over London Property to NCA Return to News 19 October 2016 The Court of Appeal has refused permission for convicted fraudster Sean Martin Doherty (age 59) to appeal a High Court Order to hand over his £460,000 North London property to the NCA. The NCA successfully obtained a Recovery Order on the 17th December 2015 for possession of a flat in Princess Road, Kilburn, valued at approximately £460,000 with only around £30,000 outstanding on the mortgage, on the basis that it had been obtained from the proceeds of crime. The Court was told that it had been acquired in 1998 for £55,000 using a fraudulent mortgage, bought using a false id…

Return to News17 Oct 2016 Kenya’s first police unit dedicated to fighting child sexual exploitation and abuse was officially launched in Nairobi today with support from the National Crime Agency. Comprising 12 officers from the National Police Service of Kenya, as well as a member of children’s services, the unit, which has been operational since April, has already been instrumental in safeguarding 150 children. It is pursuing 15 cases against child sex offenders, working closely with children’s services, prosecutors, specialist doctors and the human rights organisation International Justice Mission (IJM). The NCA’s International Liaison Officers and CEOP Command hav…

Home News Trucker hid £3m cocaine in bunk of his cab Return to News 14 October 2016 A long-distance lorry driver from Lancashire has been given a 16 year prison sentence after being found guilty of attempting to bring cocaine worth more than £3 million into the UK in his cab. Philip Karl Green, 45, of Thornton Cleveleys near Blackpool, was stopped by Border Force officers at Immingham dock as he arrived on a ferry from Esbjerg in Denmark on 25 April 2015. Concealed under the bunk bed in his cab were around 30 tape-wrapped packages. Forensic analysis showed each contained a kilo of cocaine, between 50 and 60 per cent pure. In interviews with National Crime Agenc…

Home News Blackpool bank payment led to capture of man behind airport’s biggest ever heroin seizure Return to News 10 October 2016 A man from Blackpool has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for attempting to import heroin worth a potential £26 million into the UK inside an oven. The drugs were discovered hidden deep within the commercial oven, which had been imported from Iran, at Manchester Airport on 10 April this year. Border Force officers stripped away metal panels and rendering bricks at the rear of the oven, where they found more than 120 tape-wrapped packages, each containing around a kilo of heroin. It is believed to be the biggest ever seizure of h…

Home News NCA investigation into the sale of NAMA’s NI loan book update Return to News 6 October 2016 As of 27 September: • NCA officers have interviewed seven people under criminal caution • Six of the seven remain under investigation and criminal suspects • More than 40 witnesses have been interviewed • We have conducted eight searches of properties. • We have obtained Court Orders to obtain materials from public and private institutions. • In May this year we arrested and interviewed two people under caution, who were subsequently released from police bail. The investigation is a High Priority operation on the UK Serious and Organised Crime grid and covers: - …

Return to News 5th October 2016 A woman who acted as personal assistant to her partner’s organised crime group as it smuggled drugs into Britain has been jailed following an investigation by the National Crime Agency. Anni Rowland, 54, of King George’s Field, Stow-on-the-Wold, counted Kevin Hanley’s money, paid his rent and arranged travel and accommodation for him and his associates as he toured Europe negotiating deals to import illegal drugs. Rowland was found guilty of conspiracy to supply cocaine, amphetamine and cannabis at the Old Bailey today, as well as a count of money laundering relating to £2m found at a flat of Hanley’s in Chelsea. Hanley, 54, who posed…

Return to News05 October 2016 Two men responsible for laundering millions of pounds stolen using the malicious software Dridex have been sentenced to a total of 12 years in prison, following a joint investigation by the National Crime Agency and Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). Over a two year period, Pavel Gincota, 32, and Ion Turcan, 35, both Moldovan nationals with Romanian Citizenship, funded a luxury lifestyle by laundering over £2.5 million criminal profits through more than 220 bank accounts. The money had been stolen using Dridex, a malicious software (malware) sent via email attachment which, when opened, allows criminals to remotely access the victim’s dev…

Home News North East criminal network hit with £2m confiscation orders Return to News 30th September 2016 Confiscation orders totalling more than £2m have been secured against the ringleaders of a conspiracy to import millions of pounds worth of class B drugs into the UK from Europe. Sandro Farini (60), owner of the Skiff Inn pub in Gateshead, headed a criminal network with Jaswinder Sahota (51), a Derby business man with offices also in Amsterdam. Sahota’s responsibility was to launder the money and facilitate the business end of the operation. The members of the network were caught attempting to smuggle 85 litres of Amphetamine Hydrochloride, which had the poten…