He looked like any other tourist jetting off on holiday - one look in his suitcase disproved that entirely
01.12.2023 - 20:55
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Three members of a criminal network that smuggled more than £100m in illicit cash from the UK to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been found guilty of money laundering offences. The trio - which includes a man from Wigan - were paid around £3,000 for each trip they took to Dubai.
Craig Bramall, 42, from Wigan, removed an estimated £1.3m in three suitcases during the one trip he made in September 2020. Following a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation, the 42-year-old was found guilty on Friday (December 1) at Isleworth Crown Court in West London alongside Samantha Horst, 51, from Staines-upon-Thames, and Bridget Taylor, 43, from Edinburgh - bringing the total number convicted of involvement in the conspiracy to 14.
They were part of a network which smuggled more than £104m in suitcases during 83 separate London to Dubai trips between November 2019 and October 2020, booking business class flights for the extra baggage allowance. The criminal conspiracy was overseen by ringleader Abdullah Alfalasi, an Emirati national aged 48, who was jailed for more than nine years in July last year.
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Adrian Searle, Director of the National Economic Crime Centre in the NCA, said: “The laundering of such vast quantities of cash around the globe enables organised criminals and corrupt elites to hide their illegally-obtained wealth. Cash smugglers typically work on behalf of international controllers, who move the money generated by the international drug trade, people traffickers, fraudsters and other criminal groups, all with the intention of making