Yorkshire members of money laundering gang which smuggled £30m to UAE jailed

Yorkshire members of an organised crime gang who smuggled millions of pounds out of the UK and into the UAE have been jailed.

A total of eight people have been captured following an National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation into the gang who worked with a British Dubai-based organiser to smuggle the money on Emirates flights leaving Manchester, Birmingham and Brussels between December 2017 and November 2019.

The couriers smuggled the cash in up to five suitcases at a time, sometimes helped by corrupt check-in worker Emma Rauf, from Wilmslow in Cheshire.

The alleged organiser, who is awaiting extradition to the UK to face trial and cannot be named for legal reasons, instructed his subordinates to collect cash from organised crime groups in the UK and fly it out to the UAE without declaring it on departure as the law requires.

Rauf, nee Royle, worked alongside her brother Ben, of London, as part of the arrangement.

Four members of the gang from Yorkshire also worked alongside the organiser to smuggle almost £17m of cash out of the country across several trips to the UAE.

The money laundering arrangement worked by network members collecting cash from criminal groups in Sheffield and Huddersfield, as well as Manchester, Liverpool and Southport.

The couriers would pack hundreds of thousands of pounds of cash at a time concealed in clothes in suitcases. They were put up in expensive Dubai hotels and had meals and visits to expensive nightclubs and beach clubs paid for.

The plan began to fall apart after £788,455 in cash was seized at UK airports over three separate dates, prompting the NCA’s investigation.

Investigators found Devanyl Graham, 27, from Dewsbury, flew to Dubai 18 times declaring a total of £4 million in cash on arrival.

Heather Jeffrey, 58, her son Sheldan Noel, 30, and daughter Lamara Noel, 34, all from Bradford, collected cash from organised crime groups and flew it to Dubai.

They smuggled out £5 million over 10 trips, £5.4 million over 10 trips and £2.5 million over 10 trips respectively.

The alleged organiser used a WhatsApp group to instruct the trio, with messages showing that Jeffrey was told to pick up cash from Huddersfield and Sheffield in May 2018.

Each defendant was charged with a single count of entering into or becoming concerned in a money laundering arrangement between the 14 December 2017 and 15 November 2019, contrary to section 328(1) of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Six members of the group have been sentenced, while Rauf and Logan will be sentenced at a later date:

• Graham, of Burking Road, Dewsbury, was jailed for six years

• Jeffrey, of Potter Close, Low Moor, Bradford, was jailed for six-and-a-half years

• Lamara Noel, of Loweswater Avenue, Bradford, was jailed for five years

• Sophie Logan, 31, who had been living in Dubai but was formerly of Derby, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years

• Ben Royle, of Redcliffe Road, London was jailed for four years and three months

• Sheikh Jobe, 33, of Sealy Walk, Manchester was sentenced to six months imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 200 hours community service. He was also given a three-month curfew.

NCA branch commander Jon Hughes said: “This crime group smuggled enormous quantities of cash, to remove it from the attention of law enforcement.

“Illicit cash is the lifeblood of organised crime groups, fuelling violence and insecurity around the world.

“This is why disrupting its supply is a priority for the NCA and our partners, hitting crime groups in the pocket where it hurts the most.”