3 hours ago
A billion-pound laundering web dispersed crossed the UK utilized cryptocurrency to determination transgression proceeds and assistance Russian interests evade sanctions, according to the NCA.
Updated Nov 22, 2025, 3:32 p.m. Published Nov 22, 2025, 3:32 p.m.
A billion-pound money-laundering web operating crossed 28 towns and cities successful the UK has been converting proceeds from cause trafficking, firearms income and organized transgression into cryptocurrency, with immoderate of those funds yet helping Russia sidestep sanctions and bankroll its warfare effort, Sky News reported, citing National Crime Agency (NCA).
The operation, uncovered done the NCA’s long-running "Operation Destabilise," has already led to 128 arrests and the seizure of much than £25 cardinal successful currency and integer assets. Investigators accidental the web was truthful entrenched that it adjacent acquired its ain slope to streamline illicit payments linked to Russian interests.
Couriers reportedly collected bags of “dirty” currency earlier it was rapidly moved into crypto markets. The NCA warned that these flows are not conscionable fuelling UK transgression enactment but besides connecting straight to “geopolitical events causing suffering astir the world.”
Blockchain transparency
Despite the communal cognition that integer assets connection anonymity, the NCA stressed that blockchain transparency is proving instrumental successful mapping these transgression pipelines.
Chainalysis' vice president, Madeleine Kennedy, told Sky News that nationalist blockchains supply “a mediocre conveyance for wealth laundering,” enabling instrumentality enforcement to hint funds tied to cause trafficking, sanctions evasion and cybercrime.
One alleged ringleader, Russian nationalist Ekatarina Zhdanova, described by investigators arsenic a cardinal fiscal conduit for cybercriminals and Russian elites, is presently detained successful France awaiting trial.
UK information curate Dan Jarvis said the cognition exposes however Russia relies connected covert fiscal channels, including crypto-based laundering, to evade sanctions.
“It volition ne'er beryllium tolerated connected our streets,” Jarvis said.
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