June 22, 2024 • 38 mins
Drug money is carried out of the UK in suitcases carried by passengers travelling in luxury.
A cash mule tells David Collins about the brazen operation used to smuggle millions to Dubai.
This episode contains descriptions of suicidal thoughts.
If you or someone you know has been affected by the issues raised, the following organisations can help:
Samaritans in the UK - 24-hour helpline - 116 123
Lifeline in Australia - 24-hour helpline 13 11 14
To listen ad-free subscribe to Crime X+
To find out more visit cocaineinc.com.au
Get in touch: cocaineinc@thetimes.co.uk
Visit us on socials:
Crime X+: Instagram, TikTok and Facebook
The Times: Instagram, TikTok and Facebook
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Just a warning, this episode contains descriptions of suicidal thoughts.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
From what I've seen, he had a very good lifestyle,
expensive watches, nice places to live, certainly had a top
of arrange Mercedes for the top of my head, traveled
a lot, had use of his wife's family's flat in London.
He's got no criminal record, He's not known to law
enforcement anywhere in the world prior to this, so you know,
he had all of the front of a successful, legitimate businessman.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
I've relived this in my head over and over so
many times because it was just horrendous.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
It's six am on a late spring morning in northern England.
The sun has already risen. On the top floor of
a terraced house, a woman is peacefully asleep.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I was just done me on in bed. I remember
I didn't have any underwear on. I just had a
brower on.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Suddenly there's a banging her front door.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I thought it was a postman with a parcel or something.
So I remember, like EFFI and Jeffing walking down the
stairs thinking why the fuck are they banging so loud.
I got a towel and wrapped it around me, you know,
so I could sort of eye behind the door and
grab my parcel. I opened the door and they said
it was the police. And my initial thought was something's
(01:23):
happened to my son, because if the police are knocking
your door at that time, you think something's happened to
somebody that you know. Never in a million years did
I think it was anything that I'd done. That was
not my initial thought.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
As it turns out, her initial thought was wrong. The
police are here to speak to her.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
At first, I only saw like three of them on
the doorstep, and then when I looked around them, I
saw that there was laws more of them. I remember
saying I've got no onncas on because they were trying
to put their way in, and I was like, I've
got no fucking knickers on, and they were like, yeah,
we don't care, and just push the door and just
(02:06):
sort of frog match me upstairs, and then said I'm
go in the bedroom with this female officer and get dressed.
I remember I was on my period at the time
and saying to her, I need to go like sort
myself out, and she was like, well, I need to
come with you, and she basically came with me to
(02:26):
the toilet.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
The officer watches her every movement. She's concerned the woman
might flush away her mobile phone, which could have incriminating evidence.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I remember one of the officers looking around my house
and saying it's a nice house, like you're not the
sort of person to be involved in this sort of stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
They let her get dressed. She's taken into her front room,
where she's surrounded by a group of officers. They're from
the UK's National Crime Agency, tasked with fighting organized crime.
They're often compared to the FBI.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
And then they sat me down on the sofa, read
me my rights. I was thinking, this is not me,
this is not happening to me, this is not real.
It was like a dream. And then they basically said
I was arrested for money laundring and being involved in
(03:26):
an international crime gang. And then I just burst out crying.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
I'm Fiona Hamilton and from The Times, The Sunday Times
and News Corp Australia. This is Cocaine Inc. Episode six,
Sunshine and Lollipops. Last time, David Collins was in Merseyside
(03:56):
where the cocaine retail market is chaotic but there's still
profit to be made.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Yes there is, but the problem of drug money is
it's dirty, meaning if you try to spend the cash
that you made from selling coke, then that's going to
raise suspicions about where all those banknotes came from. So
you need to clean that money to make it look
like it came from legitimate business. In the UK, gangs
(04:22):
do that by fiddling the books in legal businesses like
this tanning salon. Ten minutes on a subed costs you
three pounds in cash, no cards, so no electronic trail.
It's quiet today. There's only been three customers wanted to
(04:44):
use a sunbed, but that's okay because according to the
business accounts, which are kept on paper, at least one
hundred people came through. That sleight of hand means a
salon zonner can go to a bank and pay three
hundred pounds as a day's takings, making that money look
(05:06):
as if it's legal. Of course it isn't. Only nine
pounds is from real customers. The rest is from selling cocaine.
But once it's in the bank, nobody can prove that.
Do that five days a week, fifty two weeks a
year and you can clean almost eighty thousand pounds through
this one salon enough to buy a BMW or put
(05:28):
down a deposit on a house and a nice part
of the city. But the cocaine business isn't about scraping
together enough cash for a house deposit. In this world,
eighty grand is only spare change. The real operators they
clean their money using a similar method to this subed operation,
but they do it on a much bigger scale, Which
(05:51):
brings me back to the woman who was woken by police,
the person Fiona was telling you about at the start
of the episode, and how I found myself going to
meet her. So I'm sitting in a hotel room. It's
a secret location. So often people who want to give
(06:13):
you stories in the world of organized crime, do you
want to stay anonymous? It's not unusual. However, what is
unusual about this interview is who she is and what
she did. We're not going to use her name and
we're not going to identify her. So what you're about
to hear is her words, but an actor speaking those words.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
In twenty nineteen, just before all this happened, I was
in a really good place. I was probably at the
top of my game. I just got out of a
horrible relationship, moved into a beautiful home. I was self
implied some a salary will theary, but on a good
month it could be anywhere between four and six grand.
(07:00):
Was exactly where I wanted it to be. I was
massively into my fitness. I had a great group of friends,
and I was just very very happy.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
I'm going to call this woman Francesca. I'd describe her
as somewhat glamorous. She works in a beauty industry. I
won't be any more specific than that. She's warm, friendly
and bubbly. You can tell she spends a working life
chatting with lots of different people and putting them at ease.
This is the first time she or any of the
(07:30):
people she got mixed up with, have publicly told their story.
That story starts in late twenty nineteen and early twenty twenty,
when Francesca was, as she says, where she wanted to be.
They now follows a ministerial broadcast from the Prime Minister.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
Good evening, the coronavirus is the biggest threat this country
has faced for decades, and this country is not alone.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Then lockdown here and completely turn my life upside down
and screwed.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
Me from this evening. I must give the British people
a very simple instruction, you must stay at home. I
am officially declaring a national emergency.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Life and frankly, freedom as we know it are both
going to change dramatically.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
The breaking news stay at home, that is the order tonight.
More than three billion people in almost seventy countries and
territories have been asked to stay at home.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
On the twenty third of March. In twenty twenty, as
the COVID pandemic swept across the globe, the UK went
into a national lockdown, and for those like Francesca who
needed to meet people face to face and make a living,
that was a problem.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
I was out of work, so all of my money
just stopped. I skoot to the bank of mom and
dad and they don't have a lot of money.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
What did your finances look like at that point?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Absolutely dire loads of debt, not just to credit cards
and whatnot, but to friends and family, which was just
keeping me up at night.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
How much do you reckon? Roughly like total debt to friends, family, credit.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Cards, probably about twenty grand. At that point, I was thinking,
am I going to lose my home? Because I'd spoken
to my landlord and I'd asked him if I could
have a bit of a break on my rent payments,
and he was just like, absolutely not. If you can't
afford it, you can get out.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
In May of twenty twenty, COVID restrictions started to ease
a little, but the beauty sector was still classed as
high risk, which meant Francesca would not be allowed to
work until later that summer.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
I met a friend of a friend and she was
in a similar industry to me, so we were kind
of exchanging notes and having a bit of a moan
about it, and then she said, well, actually I've been
giving this opportunity to work and to buy for a
beauty academy. You get flown first class and you make
X amount of money. And that was initially how she
(10:14):
sold it to me, and then bit by bit it
became apparent that it wasn't what she initially said.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
It was hand on heart. What did you think it was?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
My first question was is it drugs? Because I just
knew that I would not smuggle drugs, But it was money.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
What exactly were you asked to do? I was asked to.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Take suitcases full of money. I wasn't told the exact amount,
but I did know that it was more than was
legally allowed, and then that money would be sort of
supplied with some documents so that we could declare it
in Dubai.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
So this was the job. What Francesco had agreed to
do was carry suitcases from London to Dubai, but she
didn't quite know what she was getting into because inside
those suitcases was millions of pounds in banknotes. This was
the hard cash street profit of organized crime groups, much
(11:27):
of it coming from cocaine. The way it worked is
that Francesca would go to Heathrow Airport with another woman
and check in on business class. They turn up in pairs,
pretending they were going on a girl's weekend away. In return,
they were paid three thousand pounds in cash. The group
would later become known as a Sunshine and Lollipops gang,
(11:51):
named after one of their WhatsApp groups. Francesca's first assignment
was in the summer of twenty twenty. What were thinking
in bed the night before?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I had mixed emotions, scared of the thought of checking in,
just overthinking every little detail of it, but also a
little bit of excitement as well, because I've never flown
business class before. And too experienced to buy.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
The day of the flight, Francesca and another woman took
the train to London together. How it worked was that
they would get WhatsApp messages from those higher up in
the chain telling them where to go and what to do.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Everybody had to meet at a Starbucks in London. I
think we ended up having to wait four hours or something.
The other person I was doing it with said they
just do this all the time. They just changed plans
for one reason or another, and you don't get much detail.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
The women didn't know who they were working for. All
they could do was wait for instructions.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
And then a driver would come to collect us from
the Starbucks. This very swanky car blacked out, you know,
like a proper show for in a people carrier. We
were getting messages telling us what to do next. They
want to know exactly where you are at all times.
The driver was obviously getting messed as well, so that
(13:28):
they knew exactly where to go, and then we would
go to another address to collect the cases in a
really swanky part of London.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Soon the driver pulled up outside a very plush building
in London's West End. The can you imagine TV stars
or maybe a hedge fund executive would live in.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
We were just sat in the car, and then the
driver would get out and two people would come from
the apartment or the house with the cases and put
them in the back of the car.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
The whole time the women never left the car so
couldn't see exactly what was happening or who was involved.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Between them, they'd count them and say to the driver, there's,
you know, this many cases, and I was like, what
the fuck is going on? There was seven cases. I thought, shit,
that's a lot of money.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
And what did the cases look like?
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Black hardshell, good quality, with the code on to open it,
which were clearly locked. And I do remember thinking, what
if they ask us to open it and we don't
know the code, that's going to look pretty sous. And
then the driver started driving again, and constantly you would
(14:47):
be getting text saying where you now, Like if you're
in traffic, you'd have to constantly be telling them you wereabouts.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
The driver, who had still not said a single word
to the w drove them to Heathrow, one of the
world's busiest airports, the.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Closest to the airport I got. The more nervous I
got they did tell us to get a little bit
dressed up, just look a bit suave. So I remember
making sure I had a full face of makeup on
and just looking like I would be the sort of
person that would fly business class. I'm not there in
my you know, capatrack suit.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
It had been hours since Francesca had arrived in London,
but finally late in the evening, throughout heath Row.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
We get to the airport, get the trolleys. I got three,
the other person got four, and then wheel them over
to the checking desk. And it's pretty quiet in the airport.
There's not a lot of people there, and that's for
a reason because they rushed through, as you've not got
a lot of time to get onto the flight.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Whoever was organizing this operation knew that the later the
women arrived at the airport, especially as business class customers,
they would be less likely to have their luggage checked thoroughly,
and instead rushed onto the plane. Everything was set up
to give the impression that these were busy, successful women
(16:20):
running late for an expensive flight, not the kind of
people who you need to ask questions. Any baggage can
we take quite quick at the four weeks But in
that moment where you've got the seven cases and you're
picking them up one by one and putting them on
the little conveyor belt that goes into the back are yeah,
(16:43):
what were you thinking? Then?
Speaker 3 (16:45):
It was a million thoughts like shit, what if they
opened the case? But then equally just smiling and playing
this role of this fancy lady that's flying business class.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
It worked. Within an hour, Francesca and the other woman
were walking onto the flight, turning left sitting in business
class while their cases were being loaded onto the plane.
The flight attendant came round offering champagne, but until the
plane's wheels left the runway, there was still a chance
(17:19):
it could all go wrong. Francesca even daydreamed about it.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
I remember visualizing security coming onto the flight. But once
the flight let a tarmac and you're up in the
air and you've got that glass of champagne in your hand,
the sense of relief I cannot explain to you.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Seven hours later, the plane landed in Dubai, a gleaming
city of skyscrapers and extravagant spending in the United Arab Emirates.
At this point, the women were sent the codes to
open the suitcases again via WhatsApp. Before they could leave,
they had to declare the money flagging down a customs official.
(18:04):
Francesca was led into a room with opate glass with
two officers inside, and.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Then they're just like taking the money out of the
case and then just took it on the table count it.
They don't bat an eyelid because as soon as you
see that paperwork, I mean one they must see it
all the time, or two that paperwork tells them everything
they need.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
The paperwork Francesca's referring to is what you're handed over
to the customs officials. That letter said the money was
for a registered business based in Dubai called Omnivest Gold Trading.
That company was owned by a man called Abdullah al Fallassi.
To me, it seems amazing that they didn't ask any
(18:48):
more questions about two British women carrying millions of pounds
in their suitcases. Yes, there was paperwork, but at least
flag it is suspicious. Anyway, the emiralty officials simply counted
it out.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
The first time I saw the money, I felt like
I was in a film or it wasn't real. It
was just so real. It was like a dream. I
couldn't believe how much it was. I didn't really think
it was going to be into the millions, and I thought,
what the fuck have I got myself into?
Speaker 4 (19:24):
After being waved through, Francesca's final stop was the arrivals hall.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
As soon as you walked through that door, there's somebody
there straight away to meet you, and obviously they know
that you've got seven cases, they know exactly who you are,
and they know what you look like. He then walked
with you to the cars. They took all the suitcases
and another car just had a driver in and that's
(19:50):
the one we got in, and then they basically just
said thank you.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
That thank you was the last thing Francesca heard about
the money. Two women spent the next few days soaking
up the sun in a five star hotel and that
was it. Job done. Francaska pulled this stunt three times
in total, smuggling millions of pounds worth of criminal money
out of the UK, with a substantial part of that
(20:19):
link to cocaine.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So when I saw or realize the scope and depth
of the information on abdelayl Felassi's phones, that was a
real fall off your chair moment for me. I didn't
expect it. I've never seen that before. It took hours
and hours and hours to go through it all. Yeah,
it was surprising, challenging yet really really good moment.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
I'm in a small windowless room in a hotel Hefro Airport,
and I'm sitting Officer Ian trueby, a senior investigating officer
for the National Crime Agency. We're talking about the cash
smuggling operation run by the Sunshine and Lollipop's gang. Ian's
telling me about the moment he and his team got
(21:17):
access to a phone belonging to Abdullah al Fhallase. That's
the person listed as the owner of Omnibus Gold Trading,
the company on the letter Francesca was given to hand
to officials in Dubai back to our Phallas's phone and
what Ian was seeing.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
And I thought, this is a treasure trove. And it
just got better and better, which only why I can
describe it. Everybody was pretty excited at that point because
I think we'd understood, we were probably getting an understanding
that we probably hadn't seen before about how this actually worked.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Ian is a thoughtful character and quite unassuming. You wouldn't
think to me him, but he's the man who helped
bring down one of the biggest cash smuggling operations in
UK history.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
It was my team that brought down the Sunshine and
Lollipops money laundering group. This was a group of people
that were recruited to carry suitcases full of cash out
of the UK and take them to Dubai, a very fundamental,
straightforward method of money laundering.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
While straightforward, the group was undeniably sophisticated. As investigation continued,
Ian was able to work out smuggling operation started in
November twenty nineteen, a few months before Francesca was recruited.
In the summer of twenty twenty. In just over a year,
(22:47):
the cash mules were able to make eighty three separate trips.
For most of that time, things ran smoothly. It was
like a business.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
They submitted their expense claims and then they were imbursed
for their train fare, with their hotels and taxis, etc.
So that is it in a nutshell.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
But in October twenty twenty, the first crack in that
shell appeared. One of the cash mules was stopped at
Heathrow Airport. Thirty year old recruitment consultant Tarba Handlon.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
By her own account. She was currently out of work
due to COVID, nothing to suggest that she was linked
to crime in any way, shape or form, had no
criminal record. She was asked some standard questions, do you
have any cash? She initially denied it. They decided to
call her suitcases up because something didn't quite hang right.
You've got five cases, you're only going for a weekend.
(23:43):
There's only two of you.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Inside one of Tarba Hanland's suitcases, officials found one point
nine million pounds vacuum packed and hidden with coffee in
an apparent attempt to ward off sniffer dogs.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
On top Corra's phone there was a copy of a
letter from a company called omnive Escu Limited. Now that
letter was used to provide, if you're like, some form
of cover, primarily for the Dubai customs, because nothing ever
got declared in the UK. And that signatory turtle letter
is Abdullah al Faallesse.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
There's that name again, Abdullah al Fallaci. Ian's team began
an investigation and we're able to establish Al Fallassi was
an Emorati national who spent his time between Dubai and
the UK. His wife's family had a flat in Belgravia.
In London's West End. After Tara Handlan was arrested, Ian's
(24:42):
team kept a close eye on him.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
We were just very fortunate. And that's the only way
I can put it that mister l Fallaci decided to
come to the UK, because that's what really broke the
case for us. His arrest and examination of the content
of his phone just revealed the hoole modus operandi.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
So what did you see on the phone.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
There were many, many, many hundreds of WhatsApp threads, so
it was him booking travel tickets, him receiving images of passports,
fining details of the flights, when they traveled, who they
traveled with, what luggage they'd taken.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
I mean, that's an extraordinary treasure trove for an investigator
to have as.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah, incredibly rare. It was a bit of an oh
my god moment. There is so much data on this
phone you just don't see it.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
And just on al Falaci himself, could you talk a
bit about what he was like and his lifestyle and
who he was and his background.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
From what I've seen, he had a very good lifestyle,
expensive watches, nice places to live. He certainly had a
top of arrange Mercedes at the top of my head,
traveled a lot, had use of his wife's families flat
in London. He's got no criminal record. He's not known
to law enforcement anywhere in the world prior to this,
So you know he had all of the front of
a successful religion businessman.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
What do you know about his family?
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Not an awful lot. I do understand that his wife
is a member of a pretty wealthy family in the UAE.
One of those strange things. He did appear to have
access to legitimate wealth. So what put him into this position?
Speaker 4 (26:18):
I do not know. A bill of al Fhaalasei was
arrested in December twenty twenty one and charged with coordinating
the Sunshining lollipops network. By the time it went to court,
it's estimated that the group smuggled up to one hundred
and ten million pounds out of the UK. That's over
two hundred million Aussie dollars or nearly one hundred and
(26:40):
forty million US dollars. Al Fallasse was considered the ring
leader and admitted money laundering in July twenty twenty two,
aged forty seven. He was sentenced to nine years in jail.
It's difficult to know exactly how big a slice of
the one hundred and ten million smuggled out of the
UK was cocaine revenue, but Ian does believe that most
(27:05):
of the money came from drug dealing.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
So I've got my two hundred grand from this week's
drugs deals, I make contact with somebody, say I've got
two hundred grand, and they will say meet my person
at this location. The cash is handed over. The cash
is then taken to accounting house for want of better expression,
which has changed almost daily from what I can see
from what we've identified. In this case, that cash is
(27:31):
then consolidated with all the other cash that the group
has collected in from a variety of criminal networks, packaged
and then sent on its way. So you've got the collectors,
you've got the consolidators, and then you've got the couriers
and the people that have got control of the couriers.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
By couriers, Ian is referring to people like Franchasca. They're
one part of a wider multi level operation set up
to service organized crime. Think of them as the white
collar part of the business. The collectors pick up cash
from different criminal gangs. They take it to a central
(28:09):
point the counting house where Itch checked. Someone somewhere is
keeping the accounts so they know how much is owed
to which people. So where in that operation did al
Fallassi sit.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
There are clearly others involved who we haven't positively identified.
He is near the top of the tree, but I
couldn't comment that he is definitely at the top. But
he is a leading light in what was going.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
On, a leading light, but not the big boss. Instead,
think of our Fallacie as the department manager. The authorities
believe that he delegated recruitment and day to day management
of the cash mules to team leaders. Throughout twenty twenty one,
the National Crime Agency linked several people to the smuggling
(28:58):
network conversation gating their phones. By analyzing these, they discovered
the mules as people like Francesca, would be organized into
different WhatsApp groups, each with a team leader. The team
leader would arrange their travel and expenses, then submit these
claims to the manager Alpha Lasse. Francesca, as a low
(29:21):
level employee, would never have dealt with what Ian calls
a collector or a consolidator, or anyone else involved in
the business apart from her team leader. This had one
advantage in that it meant if any of the cash
mules got busted, there was only so much they could
tell the police. It also meant that the higher up
(29:42):
and the business you were, the further you were from
the actual drug dealing that generated the money in the
first place, and which always attracts the attention of the law.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
The controllers, unfortunately, are not in the country where the
crime that's in this cash is being committed, and in
this day and age, through digital communication, you can do
this from anywhere.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Another aspect of the sunshine the Lollipops operation that allowed
it to run smoothly was the faith they placed in
each other.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
You know, Hollywood and TV has got us. You know,
no criminal trust one another. There's all this rivalry and
all this bullshit that goes on, but there was a
huge element of trust just to hand these bags of
cash over, and where there were shortcomings or concerns about
what had been received as opposed to what was expected
to be received, it was all dealt with very calmly
(30:36):
and very professionally.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
And that was actually part of the operation's success. The
cash mules, the people who are most likely to be arrested,
were just normal previously law abiding with ordinary jobs.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
The last thing you want to do is when you're
moving your money is draw attention to it by getting
someone with a bit of forum to move it for you.
I mean, that just makes perfect logical sense. And it
also probably explains why they were paid so much, because
you're asking people who have been criminally involved before to
take a bit of a risk. So you know, three
ground for two days work isn't bad, is it? And
(31:12):
you can see the temptation, the business like approach to
it all. I don't think that's the shocking thing. Is
serious crime, but it's just a date jub to these people.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
At the time, I didn't see it like I'm robbing
a post office and that little old lady that works
in the post office is now terrified for the rest
of her life. But I've thought about it now. I've
thought about nothing else for three years. It's terrifying. I
didn't even realize that my story was connected to cocaine.
(31:50):
But you know that's how father each is.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
For her role as a cash meal in the Sunshine
and Lollipops gang, Franchasca was rested and charged.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
I was suicidal At one point. I thought about taking
my own life at least three times.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
Shit.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
The night before I first went into court, I was
in a hotel room and I didn't have one ounce
to sleep, and I got in the bath and I
was drinking this glass of red wine, and I was
so close to killing myself that night. I just couldn't
stand just thinking about it anymore, thinking I was going
(32:36):
to be plastered all over the papers, and that my
business was going to be ruined and everything else that
came with it, And.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
What stopped you from doing that?
Speaker 3 (32:47):
My son and just putting him through the hell of
having to lose me. But it was the worst thing
that I've ever experienced in my life.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
You were part of a group that smuggled one hundred
million pounds out of the UK. How do you reflect
on that and moving that amount of money?
Speaker 3 (33:14):
I am genuinely sorry. If I could turn the clock back,
I definitely would.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Francesca was ultimately convicted for her part in the international
crime group. Samuels served jail time, while others were given
suspended sentences. Earlier this year, assets seized from Abdullah Alphaalase
included savings and investments in Emiralati banks, properties in the
UAE cryptocurrency funds, luxury cars, as well as three rolexes
(33:50):
and a Patech Filipe watch Alpha. Lasse has been ordered
to pay nearly three and a half million pounds to
the British courts. That's the amount authorities think he personally
benefited from the scheme. But it's just a tiny slice
of the smuggling operation he helped orchestrate.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
We can literally just account for the cash that we seized.
We got one point nine one point four and four hundred.
What does it add up to It's part a five million.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
What do you make of the fact that so much
money was going through the customs office at Dubai? Wasn't
it were the customs office is of any suspicion that
they were in on it or is it just that
they're used to seeing that amount of money move through?
Speaker 2 (34:43):
The cash declaration rules in the UE slash Dubai are
different to the UK and Europe. You have to declare
it otherwise there is a penalty. But it does state
clearly on their declaration form the data is captured for
statistical purposes. Now I don't know why that wouldn't necessarily
(35:03):
generate some kind of investigation, but it doesn't, and it hasn't,
so that's not something I can really comment on.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
I asked authorities in the UAE why the eighty three
trips made by the Sunshine and Lollipops gang didn't raise
any suspicions. They didn't get back to me on that
specific point. However, an official did tell me the UAE
takes its role in protecting the integrity of the global
financial system extremely seriously. They also added they work closely
(35:36):
with international partners to disrupt and deter all forms of
illicit finance. When the money obviously goes off in the
suitcases and it leaves Dubai airport, where does it go
after that?
Speaker 2 (35:51):
We haven't got a lot of information about that, but
it does appear that an element of it was changed
into dereham so the local currency. A lot of it
was turned into physical dirhams, and then it was used
for something or it went somewhere else. I don't know.
We haven't got beyond that next stage.
Speaker 4 (36:12):
So what is the next stage? All we have so
far is Abdullah al Falas's name on a letter handed
to the cash mules saying the money they were carrying
was for Dubai based business called Omnives Gold trading and
if that money was drug money as Ian suspects. I
only really have one option to go to Dubai myself.
(36:37):
So I'm knocking on a door. It's got no sign whatsoever. Hi.
So to show you we're looking for omnives the goal
into trading and investigate what happened to the rest of
that one hundred and ten pounds.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah, I'm just opening that art.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
He looks a lot younger than his police mug shot. Yeah,
but that is Abdullah al Falasse.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
It's clearly him.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
It's clearly him. That's all next time on Cocaine Inc.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Cocaine Inc. Is a joint investigation from The Times, The
Sunday Times and News Corp Australia. The reporters are David Collins,
Stephen Drill and me Fiona Hamilton. The series is produced
by Sam Chanterassak. The executive producers are Will Row and
Dan Box. Audio production and editing is by Jasper Leak,
(37:42):
with original music by Tom Burchill. Additional production support on
this episode from Sharonhissein and Francesca was voiced by Liz
Fletcher and if you want to get in touch with
any questions or thoughts on the series Email Cocaine Inc.
At the time, dot co, dot uk, h
Just a warning, this episode contains descriptions of suicidal thoughts.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
From what I've seen, he had a very good lifestyle,
expensive watches, nice places to live, certainly had a top
of arrange Mercedes for the top of my head, traveled
a lot, had use of his wife's family's flat in London.
He's got no criminal record, He's not known to law
enforcement anywhere in the world prior to this, so you know,
he had all of the front of a successful, legitimate businessman.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
I've relived this in my head over and over so
many times because it was just horrendous.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
It's six am on a late spring morning in northern England.
The sun has already risen. On the top floor of
a terraced house, a woman is peacefully asleep.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I was just done me on in bed. I remember
I didn't have any underwear on. I just had a
brower on.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Suddenly there's a banging her front door.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I thought it was a postman with a parcel or something.
So I remember, like EFFI and Jeffing walking down the
stairs thinking why the fuck are they banging so loud.
I got a towel and wrapped it around me, you know,
so I could sort of eye behind the door and
grab my parcel. I opened the door and they said
it was the police. And my initial thought was something's
(01:23):
happened to my son, because if the police are knocking
your door at that time, you think something's happened to
somebody that you know. Never in a million years did
I think it was anything that I'd done. That was
not my initial thought.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
As it turns out, her initial thought was wrong. The
police are here to speak to her.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
At first, I only saw like three of them on
the doorstep, and then when I looked around them, I
saw that there was laws more of them. I remember
saying I've got no onncas on because they were trying
to put their way in, and I was like, I've
got no fucking knickers on, and they were like, yeah,
we don't care, and just push the door and just
(02:06):
sort of frog match me upstairs, and then said I'm
go in the bedroom with this female officer and get dressed.
I remember I was on my period at the time
and saying to her, I need to go like sort
myself out, and she was like, well, I need to
come with you, and she basically came with me to
(02:26):
the toilet.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
The officer watches her every movement. She's concerned the woman
might flush away her mobile phone, which could have incriminating evidence.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I remember one of the officers looking around my house
and saying it's a nice house, like you're not the
sort of person to be involved in this sort of stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
They let her get dressed. She's taken into her front room,
where she's surrounded by a group of officers. They're from
the UK's National Crime Agency, tasked with fighting organized crime.
They're often compared to the FBI.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
And then they sat me down on the sofa, read
me my rights. I was thinking, this is not me,
this is not happening to me, this is not real.
It was like a dream. And then they basically said
I was arrested for money laundring and being involved in
(03:26):
an international crime gang. And then I just burst out crying.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
I'm Fiona Hamilton and from The Times, The Sunday Times
and News Corp Australia. This is Cocaine Inc. Episode six,
Sunshine and Lollipops. Last time, David Collins was in Merseyside
(03:56):
where the cocaine retail market is chaotic but there's still
profit to be made.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
Yes there is, but the problem of drug money is
it's dirty, meaning if you try to spend the cash
that you made from selling coke, then that's going to
raise suspicions about where all those banknotes came from. So
you need to clean that money to make it look
like it came from legitimate business. In the UK, gangs
(04:22):
do that by fiddling the books in legal businesses like
this tanning salon. Ten minutes on a subed costs you
three pounds in cash, no cards, so no electronic trail.
It's quiet today. There's only been three customers wanted to
(04:44):
use a sunbed, but that's okay because according to the
business accounts, which are kept on paper, at least one
hundred people came through. That sleight of hand means a
salon zonner can go to a bank and pay three
hundred pounds as a day's takings, making that money look
(05:06):
as if it's legal. Of course it isn't. Only nine
pounds is from real customers. The rest is from selling cocaine.
But once it's in the bank, nobody can prove that.
Do that five days a week, fifty two weeks a
year and you can clean almost eighty thousand pounds through
this one salon enough to buy a BMW or put
(05:28):
down a deposit on a house and a nice part
of the city. But the cocaine business isn't about scraping
together enough cash for a house deposit. In this world,
eighty grand is only spare change. The real operators they
clean their money using a similar method to this subed operation,
but they do it on a much bigger scale, Which
(05:51):
brings me back to the woman who was woken by police,
the person Fiona was telling you about at the start
of the episode, and how I found myself going to
meet her. So I'm sitting in a hotel room. It's
a secret location. So often people who want to give
(06:13):
you stories in the world of organized crime, do you
want to stay anonymous? It's not unusual. However, what is
unusual about this interview is who she is and what
she did. We're not going to use her name and
we're not going to identify her. So what you're about
to hear is her words, but an actor speaking those words.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
In twenty nineteen, just before all this happened, I was
in a really good place. I was probably at the
top of my game. I just got out of a
horrible relationship, moved into a beautiful home. I was self
implied some a salary will theary, but on a good
month it could be anywhere between four and six grand.
(07:00):
Was exactly where I wanted it to be. I was
massively into my fitness. I had a great group of friends,
and I was just very very happy.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
I'm going to call this woman Francesca. I'd describe her
as somewhat glamorous. She works in a beauty industry. I
won't be any more specific than that. She's warm, friendly
and bubbly. You can tell she spends a working life
chatting with lots of different people and putting them at ease.
This is the first time she or any of the
(07:30):
people she got mixed up with, have publicly told their story.
That story starts in late twenty nineteen and early twenty twenty,
when Francesca was, as she says, where she wanted to be.
They now follows a ministerial broadcast from the Prime Minister.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
Good evening, the coronavirus is the biggest threat this country
has faced for decades, and this country is not alone.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Then lockdown here and completely turn my life upside down
and screwed.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
Me from this evening. I must give the British people
a very simple instruction, you must stay at home. I
am officially declaring a national emergency.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Life and frankly, freedom as we know it are both
going to change dramatically.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
The breaking news stay at home, that is the order tonight.
More than three billion people in almost seventy countries and
territories have been asked to stay at home.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
On the twenty third of March. In twenty twenty, as
the COVID pandemic swept across the globe, the UK went
into a national lockdown, and for those like Francesca who
needed to meet people face to face and make a living,
that was a problem.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
I was out of work, so all of my money
just stopped. I skoot to the bank of mom and
dad and they don't have a lot of money.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
What did your finances look like at that point?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Absolutely dire loads of debt, not just to credit cards
and whatnot, but to friends and family, which was just
keeping me up at night.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
How much do you reckon? Roughly like total debt to friends, family, credit.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Cards, probably about twenty grand. At that point, I was thinking,
am I going to lose my home? Because I'd spoken
to my landlord and I'd asked him if I could
have a bit of a break on my rent payments,
and he was just like, absolutely not. If you can't
afford it, you can get out.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
In May of twenty twenty, COVID restrictions started to ease
a little, but the beauty sector was still classed as
high risk, which meant Francesca would not be allowed to
work until later that summer.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
I met a friend of a friend and she was
in a similar industry to me, so we were kind
of exchanging notes and having a bit of a moan
about it, and then she said, well, actually I've been
giving this opportunity to work and to buy for a
beauty academy. You get flown first class and you make
X amount of money. And that was initially how she
(10:14):
sold it to me, and then bit by bit it
became apparent that it wasn't what she initially said.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
It was hand on heart. What did you think it was?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
My first question was is it drugs? Because I just
knew that I would not smuggle drugs, But it was money.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
What exactly were you asked to do? I was asked to.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Take suitcases full of money. I wasn't told the exact amount,
but I did know that it was more than was
legally allowed, and then that money would be sort of
supplied with some documents so that we could declare it
in Dubai.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
So this was the job. What Francesco had agreed to
do was carry suitcases from London to Dubai, but she
didn't quite know what she was getting into because inside
those suitcases was millions of pounds in banknotes. This was
the hard cash street profit of organized crime groups, much
(11:27):
of it coming from cocaine. The way it worked is
that Francesca would go to Heathrow Airport with another woman
and check in on business class. They turn up in pairs,
pretending they were going on a girl's weekend away. In return,
they were paid three thousand pounds in cash. The group
would later become known as a Sunshine and Lollipops gang,
(11:51):
named after one of their WhatsApp groups. Francesca's first assignment
was in the summer of twenty twenty. What were thinking
in bed the night before?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I had mixed emotions, scared of the thought of checking in,
just overthinking every little detail of it, but also a
little bit of excitement as well, because I've never flown
business class before. And too experienced to buy.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
The day of the flight, Francesca and another woman took
the train to London together. How it worked was that
they would get WhatsApp messages from those higher up in
the chain telling them where to go and what to do.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Everybody had to meet at a Starbucks in London. I
think we ended up having to wait four hours or something.
The other person I was doing it with said they
just do this all the time. They just changed plans
for one reason or another, and you don't get much detail.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
The women didn't know who they were working for. All
they could do was wait for instructions.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
And then a driver would come to collect us from
the Starbucks. This very swanky car blacked out, you know,
like a proper show for in a people carrier. We
were getting messages telling us what to do next. They
want to know exactly where you are at all times.
The driver was obviously getting messed as well, so that
(13:28):
they knew exactly where to go, and then we would
go to another address to collect the cases in a
really swanky part of London.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Soon the driver pulled up outside a very plush building
in London's West End. The can you imagine TV stars
or maybe a hedge fund executive would live in.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
We were just sat in the car, and then the
driver would get out and two people would come from
the apartment or the house with the cases and put
them in the back of the car.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
The whole time the women never left the car so
couldn't see exactly what was happening or who was involved.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Between them, they'd count them and say to the driver, there's,
you know, this many cases, and I was like, what
the fuck is going on? There was seven cases. I thought, shit,
that's a lot of money.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
And what did the cases look like?
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Black hardshell, good quality, with the code on to open it,
which were clearly locked. And I do remember thinking, what
if they ask us to open it and we don't
know the code, that's going to look pretty sous. And
then the driver started driving again, and constantly you would
(14:47):
be getting text saying where you now, Like if you're
in traffic, you'd have to constantly be telling them you wereabouts.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
The driver, who had still not said a single word
to the w drove them to Heathrow, one of the
world's busiest airports, the.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Closest to the airport I got. The more nervous I
got they did tell us to get a little bit
dressed up, just look a bit suave. So I remember
making sure I had a full face of makeup on
and just looking like I would be the sort of
person that would fly business class. I'm not there in
my you know, capatrack suit.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
It had been hours since Francesca had arrived in London,
but finally late in the evening, throughout heath Row.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
We get to the airport, get the trolleys. I got three,
the other person got four, and then wheel them over
to the checking desk. And it's pretty quiet in the airport.
There's not a lot of people there, and that's for
a reason because they rushed through, as you've not got
a lot of time to get onto the flight.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Whoever was organizing this operation knew that the later the
women arrived at the airport, especially as business class customers,
they would be less likely to have their luggage checked thoroughly,
and instead rushed onto the plane. Everything was set up
to give the impression that these were busy, successful women
(16:20):
running late for an expensive flight, not the kind of
people who you need to ask questions. Any baggage can
we take quite quick at the four weeks But in
that moment where you've got the seven cases and you're
picking them up one by one and putting them on
the little conveyor belt that goes into the back are yeah,
(16:43):
what were you thinking? Then?
Speaker 3 (16:45):
It was a million thoughts like shit, what if they
opened the case? But then equally just smiling and playing
this role of this fancy lady that's flying business class.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
It worked. Within an hour, Francesca and the other woman
were walking onto the flight, turning left sitting in business
class while their cases were being loaded onto the plane.
The flight attendant came round offering champagne, but until the
plane's wheels left the runway, there was still a chance
(17:19):
it could all go wrong. Francesca even daydreamed about it.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
I remember visualizing security coming onto the flight. But once
the flight let a tarmac and you're up in the
air and you've got that glass of champagne in your hand,
the sense of relief I cannot explain to you.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Seven hours later, the plane landed in Dubai, a gleaming
city of skyscrapers and extravagant spending in the United Arab Emirates.
At this point, the women were sent the codes to
open the suitcases again via WhatsApp. Before they could leave,
they had to declare the money flagging down a customs official.
(18:04):
Francesca was led into a room with opate glass with
two officers inside, and.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Then they're just like taking the money out of the
case and then just took it on the table count it.
They don't bat an eyelid because as soon as you
see that paperwork, I mean one they must see it
all the time, or two that paperwork tells them everything
they need.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
The paperwork Francesca's referring to is what you're handed over
to the customs officials. That letter said the money was
for a registered business based in Dubai called Omnivest Gold Trading.
That company was owned by a man called Abdullah al Fallassi.
To me, it seems amazing that they didn't ask any
(18:48):
more questions about two British women carrying millions of pounds
in their suitcases. Yes, there was paperwork, but at least
flag it is suspicious. Anyway, the emiralty officials simply counted
it out.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
The first time I saw the money, I felt like
I was in a film or it wasn't real. It
was just so real. It was like a dream. I
couldn't believe how much it was. I didn't really think
it was going to be into the millions, and I thought,
what the fuck have I got myself into?
Speaker 4 (19:24):
After being waved through, Francesca's final stop was the arrivals hall.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
As soon as you walked through that door, there's somebody
there straight away to meet you, and obviously they know
that you've got seven cases, they know exactly who you are,
and they know what you look like. He then walked
with you to the cars. They took all the suitcases
and another car just had a driver in and that's
(19:50):
the one we got in, and then they basically just
said thank you.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
That thank you was the last thing Francesca heard about
the money. Two women spent the next few days soaking
up the sun in a five star hotel and that
was it. Job done. Francaska pulled this stunt three times
in total, smuggling millions of pounds worth of criminal money
out of the UK, with a substantial part of that
(20:19):
link to cocaine.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So when I saw or realize the scope and depth
of the information on abdelayl Felassi's phones, that was a
real fall off your chair moment for me. I didn't
expect it. I've never seen that before. It took hours
and hours and hours to go through it all. Yeah,
it was surprising, challenging yet really really good moment.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
I'm in a small windowless room in a hotel Hefro Airport,
and I'm sitting Officer Ian trueby, a senior investigating officer
for the National Crime Agency. We're talking about the cash
smuggling operation run by the Sunshine and Lollipop's gang. Ian's
telling me about the moment he and his team got
(21:17):
access to a phone belonging to Abdullah al Fhallase. That's
the person listed as the owner of Omnibus Gold Trading,
the company on the letter Francesca was given to hand
to officials in Dubai back to our Phallas's phone and
what Ian was seeing.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
And I thought, this is a treasure trove. And it
just got better and better, which only why I can
describe it. Everybody was pretty excited at that point because
I think we'd understood, we were probably getting an understanding
that we probably hadn't seen before about how this actually worked.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Ian is a thoughtful character and quite unassuming. You wouldn't
think to me him, but he's the man who helped
bring down one of the biggest cash smuggling operations in
UK history.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
It was my team that brought down the Sunshine and
Lollipops money laundering group. This was a group of people
that were recruited to carry suitcases full of cash out
of the UK and take them to Dubai, a very fundamental,
straightforward method of money laundering.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
While straightforward, the group was undeniably sophisticated. As investigation continued,
Ian was able to work out smuggling operation started in
November twenty nineteen, a few months before Francesca was recruited.
In the summer of twenty twenty. In just over a year,
(22:47):
the cash mules were able to make eighty three separate trips.
For most of that time, things ran smoothly. It was
like a business.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
They submitted their expense claims and then they were imbursed
for their train fare, with their hotels and taxis, etc.
So that is it in a nutshell.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
But in October twenty twenty, the first crack in that
shell appeared. One of the cash mules was stopped at
Heathrow Airport. Thirty year old recruitment consultant Tarba Handlon.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
By her own account. She was currently out of work
due to COVID, nothing to suggest that she was linked
to crime in any way, shape or form, had no
criminal record. She was asked some standard questions, do you
have any cash? She initially denied it. They decided to
call her suitcases up because something didn't quite hang right.
You've got five cases, you're only going for a weekend.
(23:43):
There's only two of you.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Inside one of Tarba Hanland's suitcases, officials found one point
nine million pounds vacuum packed and hidden with coffee in
an apparent attempt to ward off sniffer dogs.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
On top Corra's phone there was a copy of a
letter from a company called omnive Escu Limited. Now that
letter was used to provide, if you're like, some form
of cover, primarily for the Dubai customs, because nothing ever
got declared in the UK. And that signatory turtle letter
is Abdullah al Faallesse.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
There's that name again, Abdullah al Fallaci. Ian's team began
an investigation and we're able to establish Al Fallassi was
an Emorati national who spent his time between Dubai and
the UK. His wife's family had a flat in Belgravia.
In London's West End. After Tara Handlan was arrested, Ian's
(24:42):
team kept a close eye on him.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
We were just very fortunate. And that's the only way
I can put it that mister l Fallaci decided to
come to the UK, because that's what really broke the
case for us. His arrest and examination of the content
of his phone just revealed the hoole modus operandi.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
So what did you see on the phone.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
There were many, many, many hundreds of WhatsApp threads, so
it was him booking travel tickets, him receiving images of passports,
fining details of the flights, when they traveled, who they
traveled with, what luggage they'd taken.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
I mean, that's an extraordinary treasure trove for an investigator
to have as.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah, incredibly rare. It was a bit of an oh
my god moment. There is so much data on this
phone you just don't see it.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
And just on al Falaci himself, could you talk a
bit about what he was like and his lifestyle and
who he was and his background.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
From what I've seen, he had a very good lifestyle,
expensive watches, nice places to live. He certainly had a
top of arrange Mercedes at the top of my head,
traveled a lot, had use of his wife's families flat
in London. He's got no criminal record. He's not known
to law enforcement anywhere in the world prior to this,
So you know he had all of the front of
a successful religion businessman.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
What do you know about his family?
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Not an awful lot. I do understand that his wife
is a member of a pretty wealthy family in the UAE.
One of those strange things. He did appear to have
access to legitimate wealth. So what put him into this position?
Speaker 4 (26:18):
I do not know. A bill of al Fhaalasei was
arrested in December twenty twenty one and charged with coordinating
the Sunshining lollipops network. By the time it went to court,
it's estimated that the group smuggled up to one hundred
and ten million pounds out of the UK. That's over
two hundred million Aussie dollars or nearly one hundred and
(26:40):
forty million US dollars. Al Fallasse was considered the ring
leader and admitted money laundering in July twenty twenty two,
aged forty seven. He was sentenced to nine years in jail.
It's difficult to know exactly how big a slice of
the one hundred and ten million smuggled out of the
UK was cocaine revenue, but Ian does believe that most
(27:05):
of the money came from drug dealing.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
So I've got my two hundred grand from this week's
drugs deals, I make contact with somebody, say I've got
two hundred grand, and they will say meet my person
at this location. The cash is handed over. The cash
is then taken to accounting house for want of better expression,
which has changed almost daily from what I can see
from what we've identified. In this case, that cash is
(27:31):
then consolidated with all the other cash that the group
has collected in from a variety of criminal networks, packaged
and then sent on its way. So you've got the collectors,
you've got the consolidators, and then you've got the couriers
and the people that have got control of the couriers.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
By couriers, Ian is referring to people like Franchasca. They're
one part of a wider multi level operation set up
to service organized crime. Think of them as the white
collar part of the business. The collectors pick up cash
from different criminal gangs. They take it to a central
(28:09):
point the counting house where Itch checked. Someone somewhere is
keeping the accounts so they know how much is owed
to which people. So where in that operation did al
Fallassi sit.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
There are clearly others involved who we haven't positively identified.
He is near the top of the tree, but I
couldn't comment that he is definitely at the top. But
he is a leading light in what was going.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
On, a leading light, but not the big boss. Instead,
think of our Fallacie as the department manager. The authorities
believe that he delegated recruitment and day to day management
of the cash mules to team leaders. Throughout twenty twenty one,
the National Crime Agency linked several people to the smuggling
(28:58):
network conversation gating their phones. By analyzing these, they discovered
the mules as people like Francesca, would be organized into
different WhatsApp groups, each with a team leader. The team
leader would arrange their travel and expenses, then submit these
claims to the manager Alpha Lasse. Francesca, as a low
(29:21):
level employee, would never have dealt with what Ian calls
a collector or a consolidator, or anyone else involved in
the business apart from her team leader. This had one
advantage in that it meant if any of the cash
mules got busted, there was only so much they could
tell the police. It also meant that the higher up
(29:42):
and the business you were, the further you were from
the actual drug dealing that generated the money in the
first place, and which always attracts the attention of the law.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
The controllers, unfortunately, are not in the country where the
crime that's in this cash is being committed, and in
this day and age, through digital communication, you can do
this from anywhere.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Another aspect of the sunshine the Lollipops operation that allowed
it to run smoothly was the faith they placed in
each other.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
You know, Hollywood and TV has got us. You know,
no criminal trust one another. There's all this rivalry and
all this bullshit that goes on, but there was a
huge element of trust just to hand these bags of
cash over, and where there were shortcomings or concerns about
what had been received as opposed to what was expected
to be received, it was all dealt with very calmly
(30:36):
and very professionally.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
And that was actually part of the operation's success. The
cash mules, the people who are most likely to be arrested,
were just normal previously law abiding with ordinary jobs.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
The last thing you want to do is when you're
moving your money is draw attention to it by getting
someone with a bit of forum to move it for you.
I mean, that just makes perfect logical sense. And it
also probably explains why they were paid so much, because
you're asking people who have been criminally involved before to
take a bit of a risk. So you know, three
ground for two days work isn't bad, is it? And
(31:12):
you can see the temptation, the business like approach to
it all. I don't think that's the shocking thing. Is
serious crime, but it's just a date jub to these people.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
At the time, I didn't see it like I'm robbing
a post office and that little old lady that works
in the post office is now terrified for the rest
of her life. But I've thought about it now. I've
thought about nothing else for three years. It's terrifying. I
didn't even realize that my story was connected to cocaine.
(31:50):
But you know that's how father each is.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
For her role as a cash meal in the Sunshine
and Lollipops gang, Franchasca was rested and charged.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
I was suicidal At one point. I thought about taking
my own life at least three times.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
Shit.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
The night before I first went into court, I was
in a hotel room and I didn't have one ounce
to sleep, and I got in the bath and I
was drinking this glass of red wine, and I was
so close to killing myself that night. I just couldn't
stand just thinking about it anymore, thinking I was going
(32:36):
to be plastered all over the papers, and that my
business was going to be ruined and everything else that
came with it, And.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
What stopped you from doing that?
Speaker 3 (32:47):
My son and just putting him through the hell of
having to lose me. But it was the worst thing
that I've ever experienced in my life.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
You were part of a group that smuggled one hundred
million pounds out of the UK. How do you reflect
on that and moving that amount of money?
Speaker 3 (33:14):
I am genuinely sorry. If I could turn the clock back,
I definitely would.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
Francesca was ultimately convicted for her part in the international
crime group. Samuels served jail time, while others were given
suspended sentences. Earlier this year, assets seized from Abdullah Alphaalase
included savings and investments in Emiralati banks, properties in the
UAE cryptocurrency funds, luxury cars, as well as three rolexes
(33:50):
and a Patech Filipe watch Alpha. Lasse has been ordered
to pay nearly three and a half million pounds to
the British courts. That's the amount authorities think he personally
benefited from the scheme. But it's just a tiny slice
of the smuggling operation he helped orchestrate.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
We can literally just account for the cash that we seized.
We got one point nine one point four and four hundred.
What does it add up to It's part a five million.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
What do you make of the fact that so much
money was going through the customs office at Dubai? Wasn't
it were the customs office is of any suspicion that
they were in on it or is it just that
they're used to seeing that amount of money move through?
Speaker 2 (34:43):
The cash declaration rules in the UE slash Dubai are
different to the UK and Europe. You have to declare
it otherwise there is a penalty. But it does state
clearly on their declaration form the data is captured for
statistical purposes. Now I don't know why that wouldn't necessarily
(35:03):
generate some kind of investigation, but it doesn't, and it hasn't,
so that's not something I can really comment on.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
I asked authorities in the UAE why the eighty three
trips made by the Sunshine and Lollipops gang didn't raise
any suspicions. They didn't get back to me on that
specific point. However, an official did tell me the UAE
takes its role in protecting the integrity of the global
financial system extremely seriously. They also added they work closely
(35:36):
with international partners to disrupt and deter all forms of
illicit finance. When the money obviously goes off in the
suitcases and it leaves Dubai airport, where does it go
after that?
Speaker 2 (35:51):
We haven't got a lot of information about that, but
it does appear that an element of it was changed
into dereham so the local currency. A lot of it
was turned into physical dirhams, and then it was used
for something or it went somewhere else. I don't know.
We haven't got beyond that next stage.
Speaker 4 (36:12):
So what is the next stage? All we have so
far is Abdullah al Falas's name on a letter handed
to the cash mules saying the money they were carrying
was for Dubai based business called Omnives Gold trading and
if that money was drug money as Ian suspects. I
only really have one option to go to Dubai myself.
(36:37):
So I'm knocking on a door. It's got no sign whatsoever. Hi.
So to show you we're looking for omnives the goal
into trading and investigate what happened to the rest of
that one hundred and ten pounds.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah, I'm just opening that art.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
He looks a lot younger than his police mug shot. Yeah,
but that is Abdullah al Falasse.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
It's clearly him.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
It's clearly him. That's all next time on Cocaine Inc.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Cocaine Inc. Is a joint investigation from The Times, The
Sunday Times and News Corp Australia. The reporters are David Collins,
Stephen Drill and me Fiona Hamilton. The series is produced
by Sam Chanterassak. The executive producers are Will Row and
Dan Box. Audio production and editing is by Jasper Leak,
(37:42):
with original music by Tom Burchill. Additional production support on
this episode from Sharonhissein and Francesca was voiced by Liz
Fletcher and if you want to get in touch with
any questions or thoughts on the series Email Cocaine Inc.
At the time, dot co, dot uk, h
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.