Pak origin money launderer jailed in UK

A UK-based money launderer of Pakistani origin, nicknamed 'Mr Persil' for "cleaning" 50 million pounds, has been jailed for ten years.

Touted as underworld's biggest money launderer Tanveer Jaffery, 65, funnelled crime lords' dirtycash through banks and his 'Remittance to Pakistan' money transfer firm, which let people send funds home to Pakistan through website R2PK.com, the Daily Mirror reported.

According to the report, the dirty cash was "cleaned" as it moved from country to country -- UK, Dubai and UAE -- before ending up back in the pockets of Britain's biggest gangsters.

But Jaffery was busted after a four-year investigation by Revenue & Customs, which used hi-tech surveillance tactics.

Computer experts secretly made a working copy of Jaffrey's website to see how his money laundering scam was set up, the report said. Investigators also obtained encrypted text messages sent between his associates and put them under 24-hour video surveillance. The probe revealed crime lords sent Jaffery coded texts instructing him where, when and how to pick up their cash.

The texts contained the serial number of a 5 pound note, a postcode and a vehicle registration number. Jaffery then dispatched couriers to pick up the notes in sports bags. He was first arrested in October 2007 with a holdall and briefcase containing 151,020 pounds in 20 pound notes in his car.

His deputy Naveed Ahmed, 45, who lived next door to Jaffery in posh Trentham, Staffs, was arrested in April 2008 on his way to Stoke in a car with 249,825 pounds, given to him by crooks at a McDonald's car park in Merseyside.

He was sentenced to six years' jail after a 6-week trial at Isleworth crown court, West London. Operation Umbrage officers nailed the gang after working with police in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, West Yorks, West Midlands, Staffs and London.

Couriers Mohammed Farooq, 30, of Walthamstow, and Syed Shah, 29, of Leytonstone, both East London, were each jailed for four years.

KAB