Lockdown drug profits laundered through Russian crime network
A multi-billion-pound money laundering operation which emerged during lockdown, has been uncovered by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
Investigators have described the discovery of a Russian-speaking network embedded in the UK’s street drugs trade as the most significant breakthrough against money laundering in a decade.
The global operation, headquartered in Moscow, provided criminal gangs with a means to launder their illicit earnings. For a fee, the network facilitated the conversion of dirty money into untraceable cryptocurrency, preventing the profits from being detected. Additionally, the network has reportedly been used by the Russian state to fund espionage activities.
Across 30 countries the network has led to the arrest of 84 individuals, including 71 in the UK, according to the NCA and its international partners during a briefing earlier this week.
UK Security Minister Dan Jarvis remarked that the operation had “exposed Russian kleptocrats, drug gangs, and cyber criminals – all of whom depended on the flow of dirty money.”
Ekaterina Zhdanova, head of a Moscow-based cryptocurrency operation named Smart, has been named as a central figure in the scheme, having previously been sanctioned by US authorities in November 2023 for allegedly facilitating financial transactions for Russian elites.
Bradley Smith, acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the US Treasury, stated that the US “remains committed to disrupting any attempt by Russia to exploit digital assets or other illicit financial systems to acquire, store, and transfer their ill-gotten gains.”
Rob Jones, the NCA’s director general of operations, noted that the links between Russian elites, cybercriminals enriched through cryptocurrency, and UK drug gangs had remained “invisible until now.”
“We’ve identified and acted against the Russians pulling the strings at the very top,” he said, adding that the NCA had made it “extremely difficult” for the key figures to continue their activities.