NRI ringleader Charan Singh including 16 Men and Women
jailed for money laundering & People smugglingin UK
Los Angeles, Sep15, 2023
NRIpress.club/Ramesh/ A.Gary Singh
Sixteen people who were part of a West London-based organised crime group involved in international money laundering and people smuggling have been given jail sentences totalling more than 70 years.
A National Crime Agency investigation identified that members of the network were likely to have smuggled around £70 million in cash out of the UK, making hundreds of trips to Dubai, UAE, between 2017 and 2019.
NCA officers believe the money was profit from the sale of class A drugs and organised immigration crime.
Around £1.5 million was seized from couriers leaving the UK but flight analysis, evidence from cash declarations in Dubai, and other material seized by the NCA showed the group had succeeded in transporting far more.
As part of the investigation NCA officers also uncovered a plot involving members of the OCG to smuggle 17 migrants, including five children and a pregnant woman, into the UK in the back of a van carrying tyres in 2019.
Midway through the second trial, which started in April, six defendants changed their plea to guilty in relation to money laundering offences.
Following a three-day sentencing hearing at Croydon Crown Court which concluded today [15 September], Charan Singh was handed a 12-and-a-half year jail term. His right hand man Valjeet Singh got 11 years, while trusted lieutenant Swander Singh Dhal got 10 years for money laundering and an additional five years for people smuggling.
The other 15 members of the crime group were given sentences ranging between nine years and 11 months.
|
