More than £3m seized from cross-border ‘money-laundering nexus’, says NCA chief

By Jonathan McCambridge, PA

More than £3 million (€3.43 million) in cash has been seized following the disruption of a cross-border “money-laundering nexus”, the chief executive of the National Crime Agency (NCA) has said.

Graeme Biggar told the Policing Board in Belfast that his organisation was working alongside the PSNI to disrupt the activities of “quite sophisticated organised crime groups” operating in Northern Ireland.

Mr Biggar said three arrests had been made in July following an investigation into a drug-smuggling organisation.

He said: “That is a Northern Ireland-based, drug-smuggling, organised crime group that is importing drugs from Europe into the UK, including into Northern Ireland.

That is a Northern Ireland-based drug smuggling organised crime group that is importing drugs from Europe into the UK, including into Northern Ireland

“They are big, they are sophisticated, we have been investigating them for some time.”

Turning to a separate investigation, he said: “We have found a money-laundering nexus in Newry.

“The location, unsurprising, it is money laundering that is going across the border, up from Dublin and into Northern Ireland.

“In that investigation, which has been going on for some time, it is really quite sophisticated.

“We have, so far, made nine arrests.”

Mr Biggar added: “We are now over £3 million in cash that has been seized from that investigation.

“I think there is a lot more to come from that, in cash to be seized and also spin-off investigations that will come from it, and also further arrests that will be made.”

The NCA director general said his organisation was also involved in “asset denial work” targeting paramilitaries in the region.

He said: “We have £1.5 million of assets that we have either frozen or we are investigating in Northern Ireland, largely associated with former paramilitaries and serious and organised crime.

“And a further, more than £3 million associated with the same investigations, assets that are connected to Northern Ireland but held outside in GB.”

He said, last week, the NCA obtained a property freezing order on a property in Northern Ireland worth £300,000 for an “individual who is currently in prison for drugs and money-laundering offences”.

He added: “The asset denial work that we do, we set a much lower bar and threshold for taking on cases in Northern Ireland than we would elsewhere.

“We are massively committed to what we do here.”

Mr Biggar said there was an increasing amount of drugs coming into the UK from the Republic of Ireland, both from HGV vehicles travelling on ferries and drop-offs.

He said: “We are seeing more drugs coming in through the Common Travel Area into GB.”