Two money laundering cash couriers were imprisoned on 26 April 2024 for their role in transporting illegally obtained money out of the United Kingdom to Dubai.
Mehdi Amrollahibyouki, 41, and Ali Al Nawab, 44, were sentenced to four years imprisonment and two years imprisonment suspended for two years respectively for money-laundering related offences at Isleworth Crown Court, the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement on 26 April.
In terms of their respective levels of participation in the organised crime group, Amrollahibyouki was both an organiser and a courier, whereas Al Nawab acted solely as a courier. In their capacity as couriers both transported criminally obtained cash from London to Dubai.
The National Crime Agency investigation revealed that Amrollahibyouki and Nawab concealed used several million pounds of bank notes in suitcases which they took from Heathrow to Dubai on eight different flights in 2020.
These eight trips were part of a total of 85 cash courier trips arranged over an 18-month period by the head of the organised crime group, Abdulla Alfalsi. On 28 July 2022, Alfalsi was sentenced to nine years imprisonment at Isleworth Crown Court for money laundering offences. The total amount of criminally acquired cash flown out of London to Dubai was around £104 million.
John Werhun of the CPS said: “Criminals always want to find ways to hold on to their illegally obtained cash and one method to do this is to ship it out of the United Kingdom.
“In total, the organised crime group transported vast quantities of criminally acquired cash out of the United Kingdom, totalling £104million. As cash couriers, Amrollahibyouki and Al Nawab, were a vital part of the criminal enterprise and must have known or suspected the cash was derived from criminal conduct.
“Money-laundering is an essential part of organised criminality, enriching individual criminals and funding their future conduct. It serves to undermine the United Kingdom economy and has the potential to threaten our national security. It is therefore a crime that affects all of us.
“The CPS has commenced proceedings to recover these defendants’ criminal proceeds.”
