Tracking down the mastermind mileage miles It helped investigators unravel an international money laundering scheme, The Wall Street Journal reported.
is more than £104m According to the National Crime Agency, cash ($131 million) was smuggled from London to Dubai on 83 separate occasions.
The NCA said the network collected cash, believed to be the proceeds of drug trafficking, from criminal organizations across the UK and packed it into suitcases each containing around $500,000.
Last week, two couriers were found guilty in a London court, bringing the total number of people convicted in connection with the operation to 16.
According to the NCA, Mehdi Amarolahibiyouki deposited 12 suitcases containing £4.3 million on three trips to Dubai in February and March 2020, while Ali Al-Nawab deposited them on two trips. He reportedly left nine suitcases containing 3.2 million pounds.
The agency said the couriers were communicating through WhatsApp groups, including one called “Sunshine and lollipops.”
The NCA said the couriers were paid up to £5,000 per trip and booked business class seats with extra baggage allowance.
The newspaper said the ringleader, Abdullah al-Falasi, used his Emirates credit card to book flights with a courier company, earn miles and fly first class himself.
Authorities said Emirates Skywards miles helped track the operation, the newspaper reported.
Alfarashi, 48, was sentenced in July 2022 to more than nine years in prison.
Mehdi Amrorabibiyouki and Ali al-Nawab will be sentenced in March.
N.C.A.
NCA senior investigator Ian Truby said: “Arnawab and Amro Rabibyouki were part of an industrial-scale money laundering operation in which large sums of criminal cash were smuggled out of the UK.”
“Their convictions mark the further dismantling of this prolific and extensive criminal network.”
Amro Rabibiyouki and Ali Al-Nawab are scheduled to be sentenced on March 8th.
A number of other British nationals are also still being investigated in connection with the scheme in the United Arab Emirates, according to the NCA.
