AML / CFT: Money laundering team jailed

Coded text messages were sent by criminals based all over the UK and couriers were dispatched to collect hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash.

The two couriers, Mohammed Umer Farooq and Syed Yasir Abbas Shah, both of Forest Gate, East London, collected the ‘dirty’ money which was then deposited into different branches of UK banks in amounts of GBP25,000 or less, allowing the gang to stay below the radar – a process known to law enforcement officials as ‘smurfing’.

It is not clear why the figure of GBP25,000 was chosen: there is no magic reporting figure in the UK for cash transaction reports as there is in, say, the USA.

Jaffery was the go-between for a number of organised crime gangs, including Mark Kinnimont, the ringleader of the UK’s largest cannabis smuggling gang. Kinnimont was convicted of smuggling GBP62m of skunk cannabis in March 2010. Jaffery used his money transfer business to launder GBP70,000 for him.

They used a system of texting a serial number from a £5 note.. Firstly it is used to identify the recipient of a cash collection, and secondly it acts as an informal receipt to the cash courier handing over the cash, so that he can prove to his OCG that he gave the money to the right person.

The system appeared to work as follows:

* One of the couriers (Farooq or Shah) would send a text to Jaffery with the serial number of a £5 note in their possession, sometimes with a nickname, a location (or postcode) and/or vehicle details
* Jaffery would then forward this to an overseas telephone – presumably an organiser or go-between
* The overseas organiser would presumably then send the same details to the UK Organised Crime Group
* The £5 note would be used – together with a nickname or car detail also sent – to identify the correct recipient for the cash. It would be handed over as a receipt.

In this way, the system operated as variation of the chop, the ancient Chinese system of funds transfer.

Due diligence information:

* Tanveer Hussain Jaffery, DOB 10/01/1950 of 10 Headingley Grove, Trentham, Stoke On Trent, jailed for 10 years
* Naveed Ahmad, DOB 26/08/1965 of 12 Headingley Grove, Trentham, Stoke-on-Trent, jailed for six years
* Mohammed Umer Farooq, DOB 20/01/1981 of 231 Winns Avenue Walthamstow, London and 58 Foley Road, Birmingham, jailed for four years
* Syed Yasir Abbas Shah, DOB 16/09/1981 of 78 Pretoria Road, London and 58 Foley Road, Birmingham, jailed for four years.