National Crime Agency (NCA)

Home News 36k ecstasy pills seized in Manchester drug haul Return to News 25 August 2016 Two cousins and their accomplice have been sentenced to nearly 30 years in prison after admitting conspiring to supply class A drugs. Liam Duffy, 36, was arrested in October 2015 with his associate, David Hazelhurst, 37, of Tomlinson Street, Moston. When officers stopped their vehicle they found concealments in the rear footwells which contained two kilos of cocaine and two kilos of a mixture of caffeine and paracetamol – a cocktail often used to bulk out class A drugs to maximise profit. Hazelhurst’s flat was searched and officers found a further kilo of cocaine, ¼ of a…

Home News More than a tonne of cocaine recovered from a vessel off the south coast of England Return to News 20 August 2016 On Thursday, as part of a joint NCA and Border Force operation, officers from the NCA and the Border Force Maritime Command carried out a dynamic boarding of the vessel Bianca, a British registered converted fishing trawler - in UK territorial waters just south of Falmouth in Cornwall. The officers deployed from two Border Force cutters, HMC Seeker and HMC Searcher, Two NCA and Border Force Maritime Command boarding parties boarded the vessel and discovered approximately 50 bags suspected of containing cocaine. The Bianca was then escorted to …

Home News Drugs and firearm seized in West Yorkshire Return to News 20 August 2016 Three people have been charged with conspiracy to supply class A drugs following an investigation led by the National Crime Agency’s Armed Operations Unit. Mohammed Abbas, 29 and Rameez Anjum, 26 both of Cross Road, Bradford and Shaun Kellett, 40 of no fixed abode, were arrested by officers from the NCA and West Yorkshire Police on the 18 August 2016. Following their arrests, a number of properties were searched and officers found several kilos of heroin, as well as various drug paraphernalia consistent with the large scale supply of class A drugs. Rameez Anjum has also been cha…

Return to News 19 August 2016 A group of fraudsters who spent four years taking driving tests for other people have been sentenced to three years in prison. The group, headed by Dzemail Trstena, aged 45, from Belgium, charged provisional licence holders up to £2,500 to sit theory or practical driving tests for them at centres all around the Home Counties and West Midlands.

 A joint investigation between the NCA and Met Police’s Organised Crime Partnership (OCP) and the Driving Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) identified that the same person, Emil Petkov, aged 30, from Bulgaria, was the subject of a large number of impersonation reports being filed by test centres. C…

Return to News 12 August 2016 The captain and first officer of an ocean going tug boat at the centre of the UK’s biggest ever class A drug seizure have been given prison sentences totalling 42 years. Mumin Sahin, 47 (below left), and Emin Ozmen, 51 (below right), both from Istanbul in Turkey, were in charge of the MV Hamal when it was boarded by officers from the National Crime Agency and Border Force around a 100 miles east of Aberdeen in April 2015. The interception, which also involved the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Somerset, followed intelligence supplied by the NCA, the French customs investigation service DNRED and the UK’s National Maritime Information Centre. …

Home News Serious offender management orders published Return to News 4 August 2016 Ancillary orders include Serious Crime Prevention Orders, Financial Reporting Orders and Travel Restriction Orders, all of which are designed to frustrate criminality, both in and out of prison. Orders can include restrictions over the number of mobile phones or computers that can be accessed, limiting the amount of cash that can be carried, surrendering passports and providing financial information at regular intervals. Ian Cruxton, Director of the NCA’s Organised Crime Command said: “Career criminals often regard prison as an interruption which rarely marks the end of their involv…

Home News Gang 'lynchpin' guilty over trafficked girls Return to News 3 August 2016 A woman known as the lynchpin of a Nigerian organised crime group has been found guilty of tricking and trafficking young woman from Africa into Europe to work in the sex trade. Franca Asemota, 38, was arrested in Benin City, Nigeria, in March 2015 following an operation co-ordinated by the National Crime Agency, working in partnership with the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crime Commission. Once her identity was confirmed Asemota was then extradited back to the UK in January this year (below right). Following a four week trial at Isleworth Crown Court in west London she was fou…

Return to News2 August 2016 The head of an organised crime network responsible for distributing more than £9m of class A drugs across Merseyside in less than a year was jailed today. Stephen James Kelly, 44, attempted to stay under the radar of law enforcement by using a trusted courier system to distribute drugs and launder money. Together with his right hand man, David Seddon, 43, Kelly would give couriers specific instructions about drug deliveries and cash handovers, controlling every element of the criminal operation from a distance. An NCA investigation into Kelly’s network began in January last year following the seizure of 230kilos of paracetamol and caffeine …

Return to News27 July 2016 Nine members of an organised crime group responsible for importing heroin with a potential street value of £10 million into the UK have been jailed for a total of 118 years, following a multi-agency operation led by the National Crime Agency. Dutch national Erwin Hendriks, 45, was arrested on 26 June 2015 after officers from the NCA and the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (TITAN) observed the coordinated delivery and collection of large quantities of heroin from a lorry at a motorway service station on the M6. Hendriks, who was running the criminal operation on the ground, received texts from a Dutch mobile phone confirming what type…

Home News Drug trafficker forced to sell house or face five more years in jail Return to News 27 July 2016 A convicted drug trafficker has been ordered to sell his house and give the proceeds to the National Crime Agency or face an extension to his prison term. Khandhakar Thaj Uddin (right), 42, from Ilford, east London, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2009 for heroin and cannabis importation over five years between 2003 and 2008. In 2010 a court ruled that the financial benefit from his criminality was £739,000. Sales of Uddin’s assets raised more than £306,000, which was confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act. At that time Uddin claimed a propert…

Return to News 25 July 2016 The National Crime Agency has been granted a Possession Order against the home of Cheshire businessman Arran Coghlan. On granting the Order against the 44-year-old on the 20 July 2016, the Right Honourable Mr. Hollington QC at the High Court told Mr Coghlan he must hand over the property within 90 days. In March 2012, following a civil recovery trial, a High Court Judge ruled that Coghlan’s home had been purchased through the proceeds of crime, namely drug trafficking and money laundering over a significant period. It was submitted that when Coghlan purchased his home in 2000 through a third party he had no legitimate means of income. …

Home News Company directors jailed for 14 counts of money laundering Return to News 25 July 2016 Two company directors who used their own company accounts to launder money from fraud victims have been jailed following an operation by the NCA working with the Metropolitan Police and Gloucestershire Constabulary. Yakub Patel (57) who was director of Refill Ink Centre Ltd and Conrad Lea Distribution Ltd, and Gavin Hale (37), who had been a director of Printme Ltd, created false purchase orders and invoices to reflect fictitious sales in an attempt to account for the stolen money. In total around £2m was laundered, in a combination of Sterling and US dollars. The money…

Return to News20 July 2016 Operation Pallial, an independent National Crime Agency investigation into recent allegations of past abuse in the care system in North Wales, will not investigate accounts from new victims and survivors received after 31 August 2016. Operation Pallial began enquiries in November 2012 at the request of North Wales Chief Constable Mark Polin. The investigation has so far resulted in the conviction of eight men, including care home owner John Allen who was sentenced to life in prison in December 2014. A total of 340 people have made contact with the investigation and 84 complaints are still being actively investigated. North Wales Police will …

Return to News 19 July 2016 National Crime Agency investigators are appealing for information regarding the whereabouts of a man they want to speak to in connection with the seizure of around seven kilos of cocaine from an airfield in North Yorkshire. If cut and sold on the streets the haul would have had a likely potential value of around £1.2 million. The drugs were found in a briefcase recovered by Border Force officers at Bagby Airfield near Thirsk on 18 October 2015, shortly after the arrival of a light aircraft. The pilot of the plane was arrested and is due to stand trial in February 2017 charged with importation offences, but NCA investigators also want to que…

Return to News19 July 2016 The City of London Police and the National Crime Agency (NCA) are calling on the public’s help to catch ten wanted fraudsters who are linked to over £20 million in fraud losses in the UK and abroad. The ten have been identified through the work of the Joint Fraud Taskforce, an initiative launched by then-Home Secretary, Theresa May in February this year that brings together law enforcement agencies, the financial sector and Government to fight criminals who prey on the public, UK businesses and our economy, and to protect the public from fraud. The taskforce has been charged with creating a new era of collaboration, resulting in greater share…