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Do you know how dangerous you become? You understand the chaos that's coming. If we can't stop this weapon from being created, we have to control it. I want a fireback starring Leo Woodall. Prime targets streaming on Apple TV Plus on the 22nd January subscription required. Just a warning, this episode contains descriptions of suicidal thoughts.
From what I've seen, he had a very good lifestyle, expensive watches, nice places to live. He certainly had a top of the arrangement, so he had travelled 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 legitimate businessman.
I've relived this in my head over and over so many times, because it was just horrendous. It's 6am on a late spring morning in Northern England. The sun has already risen. On the top floor of a terrorist house, a woman is peacefully asleep. I was just on my own in bed. I remember, I didn't have any underwear on. I just had a brow rub.
Suddenly, there's a banging at her front door. I thought it was a postman with a parcel or something, so I remember like effing 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 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. As it turns out, her initial thought was wrong. The police are here to speak to her.
At first, I only saw like three of them on the doorstep. And then when I looked around them, I saw that there was loads more of them. I remember saying, I've got no nikas on, because they were trying to push their way in. And I was like, I've got no fucking nikas on. And they were like, yeah, we don't care. And just push the door and just sort of frog match me upstairs. And then said, 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 the toilet. The officer watches her every movement. She's concerned the woman might flush away her mobile phone, which could have incriminating evidence.
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. 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.
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 laundering and being involved in an international crime gang. And then I just burst out crying.
I'm Fiona Hamilton, and from The Times, The Sunday Times and News Corp Australia, this is cocaine ink. Last time, David Collins was in Merseyside, where the cocaine retail market is chaotic, but there's still profit to be made.
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 do that by fiddling the books in legal businesses like this tanning salon.
10 minutes on a sunbed cost you £3 in cash, no cards, so no electronic trial. It's quiet today, there's only been three customers wanting to use a sunbed. But that's okay, because according to the business accounts, which are kept on paper, at least 100 people came through.
That slight of hand means the salon's owner can go to a bank and pay £300 as the day's taking, making that money look as if it's legal. Of course it isn't, only £9 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, 52 weeks a year, and you can clean almost £80,000 through this one salon. Enough to buy a BMW. I'll put down a deposit on a house in a nice part of the city.
But the cocaine business is about scraping together enough cash for a house deposit. In this world, 80 grand is only spare change. The real operators, they clean their money using a similar method to this sunbed operation. But they do it on a much bigger scale. Which brings me back to the woman who is 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 want to give you stories in the world of organised 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 a 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. In 2019, just before all this happened, I was in a really good place. I was probably at the top of my game. I'd just got out of a horrible relationship, moved into a beautiful home. I was self-employed. Some of salary were there, but on a good month, it could be anywhere between four and six grand.
My career 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. I'm going to call this woman Francesca. I'd describe her as somewhat glamorous. She worked in the 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 people she got mixed up with have publicly told their story. That story starts in late 2019 and early 2020 when Francesca was as she says where she wanted to be. They're now follows a ministerial broadcast from the Prime Minister. Good evening. The coronavirus is the biggest threat this country has faced for decades and this country is not alone.
Then lock down here and completely tear my life upside down and screwed 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.
life and frankly freedom as we know it's both going to change dramatically. The breaking news stay at home that is the order tonight. More than 3 billion people in almost 70 countries and territories have been asked to stay at home.
On the 23rd of March in 2020, 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 to make a living, that was a problem. I was out of work, so all of my money just stopped. I used to go to the bank of Mum and Dad, and they don't have a lot of money. What did your finances look like at that point?
absolutely dire. Lows a debt, not just to credit cards and whatnot, but to friends and family, which was just keeping me up at night. How much do you reckon roughly like total debt to friends, family credit cards? Probably about 20 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. In May of 2020, Covid restrictions started to raise 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.
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 given this opportunity to work in Dubai for a beauty academy.
You get flown first class and you make X amount of money. And that was initially how she sold it to me. And then bit by bit, it became apparent that it wasn't what she initially said it was. Hand on heart. What did you think it was? My first question was, is it drugs?
Because I just knew that I would not smuggle drugs, but it was money. What exactly were you asked to do? I was asked to 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.
So this was the job. What Francesca 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 profits of organised crime groups. Much 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 girls' weekend away. In return, they were paid £3,000 in cash. The group would later become known as the sunshine and lollipops gang, named after one of their WhatsApp groups. Francesca's first assignment was in the summer of 2020.
What were you thinking in bed the night before? 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 to experience Dubai.
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 high up in the chain, telling them where to go and what to do. 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 change plans for one reason or another and you don't get much detail. The women didn't know who they were working for. All they could do was wait for instructions.
and then a driver would come to collect us from Starbucks. This very swanky car, blacked out, you know, like a proper chauffeur 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 messes well so that 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.
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. 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.
The whole time the women never left the car, so I couldn't see exactly what was happening or who was involved. 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 more near. And what did the cases look like?
black, hard shell, good quality with the cold 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 cold? That's going to look pretty sus. And then the driver started driving again and constantly you will be getting text saying, where are you now?
Like, if you were in traffic, you'd have to constantly be telling them you were about. The driver, who'd still not said a single word to the women, drove them to Heathrow, one of the world's busiest airports.
The closer 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 swab. 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, Capitrak suit. It had been hours since Francesca had arrived in London. But finally, late in the evening, the Rat Heathrow,
We get to the airport, get the trolleys, I got three. The other person got four and then wheel them over to the check-in 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 rush through as you've not got a lot of time to get onto the flight.
Whoever was organising 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 running late for an expensive flight, not the kind of people who you need to ask questions.
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 of you. Yeah. What were you thinking then? 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.
It worked. Within an hour, Francesca and the other woman were walking onto the flight, turning left, sitting in business class, while their cases would be 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 it could all go wrong. Francesca even daydreamed about it. I remember visualising security coming onto the flight,
But once the flight left the tarmac and you were up in the air and you've got that glass of champagne in your hand, the sense of relief, I cannot explain to you. Seven hours later, the plane landed in Dubai, a gleaming city of skyscrapers, an 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, Francesca was led into a room with opaque glass, with two offices inside. And then they're just like, taking the money out of the case, and then just chuck it on the table, count it? They don't buy an eyelid, because as soon as they see that paperwork, I mean, one, they must see it all the time, or two, that paperwork tells them everything they need.
The paperwork Francesca's referring to is what she 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-Felasi. To me, it seems amazing that they didn't ask any more questions about two British women carrying millions of pounds in their suitcases. Yes, there was paperwork, but at least flag it as suspicious.
Anyway, the Emirati officials simply counted it out. The first time I saw the money, I felt like I was in a film or it wasn't real. It was just a real. It was like a dream. I can'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?
After being waved through, Francesca's final stop was the arrivals hall. 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 the one we got in. And then they basically just said, thank you.
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. Francesca 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 linked to cocaine.
Coming soon on Apple TV+, you're looking for sequences in prime numbers. What if numbers didn't behave the way we assumed? The world's greatest mind. Your work is the cornerstone to all digital security. Bank accounts, defense systems, government records. Is now the most wanted. Do you know how dangerous you become? You understand the chaos it's coming. If we can't stop this weapon from being created, we have to control it. I want to fire back. Starring Leo Woodall. Prime targets streaming on Apple TV+, on the 22nd January subscription required.
So when I saw or realised the scope and depth of the information on Abdullah Al-Felasi'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.
I'm in a small, windowless room in a hotel by Heathrow Airport. I'm sitting opposite Ian Truby, a senior investigating officer for the National Crime Agency. We're talking about the cash smuggling operation run by the Sunshine and Lollipops gang.
Ian's telling me about the moment he and his team got access to a phone belonging to Abdullah Al-Felassie. That's the person listed as the owner of Omnibus Gold Trading, the company on a letter Francesca was given to hand to officials in Dubai. Back to Al-Felassie's phone and what Ian was seeing.
And I thought this is a treasure trove and it just got better and better, which 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. Ian is a thoughtful character and quite unassuming. You wouldn't think to meet him, but he's the man who helped bring down one of the biggest cash smuggling operations in UK history.
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.
While straightforward, the group was undeniably sophisticated. As the investigation continued, Ian was able to work out the smuggling operation started in November 2019, a few months before Francesca was recruited in the summer of 2020.
In just over a year, the cash mules were able to make 83 separate trips. For most of that time, things ran smoothly. It was like a business, they submitted their expense claims, and then they were embarrassed for their train fares, their hotels, and taxis, etc. So that is it in a nutshell.
But in October 2020, the first crack in that shell appeared. One of the cash mules was stopped at Heathrow Airport, 30-year-old recruitment consultant, Tara Hanlon. 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. There's only two of you. Inside one of Tara Hanlon's suitcases, officials found £1.9 million, vacuum packed and hidden with coffee in an apparent attempt to ward off sniffer dogs. On Tara's phone, there was a copy of a letter from a company called Omnivest Limited.
Now, that letter was used to provide, if you like, some form of cover, primarily for the Dubai customs, because nothing ever got declared in the UK. And that signatory letter is Abdulla al-Falesi.
But there's that name again at Bill or Alfelasi. Ian's team began an investigation and were able to establish Alfelasi was an Emirati 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 Hanlon was arrested, Ian's team kept a close eye on him.
We were just very fortunate, and that's the only way I can put it, that Mr Alfelasi 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 whole modus operandi. So what did you see on the phone?
There were many, many, many hundreds of WhatsApp threads. So it was him booking travel tickets, him receiving images of passports, providing details of the flights, when they travelled, who they travelled with, what luggage they'd taken. I mean, that's an extraordinary treasure trove for an investigator to have. Yeah, incredibly rare.
It was a bit of a, oh my god moment, there is so much later on this phone, you just don't see it. And just on our philosophy himself, could you talk a bit about what he was like and his lifestyle and who he was and his background. From what I've seen he had a very good lifestyle, expensive watches,
Nice places to live. He certainly had a top of the arrangement, said he's stopping 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 legitimate businessman.
What do you know about his family? 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? I do not know. A Bill O'Alle Fallassie was arrested in December 2021 and charged with coordinating the Sunshine and Lollipops Network.
By the time it went to court, it's estimated that the group smuggled up to £110 million out of the UK. That's over $200 million Aussie dollars, or nearly $140 million US dollars. Al Falassie was considered a ringleader and admitted money laundering in July 2022. Aged 47, he was sentenced to nine years in jail.
It's difficult to know exactly how big a slice of the 110 million smuggled out of the UK was cocaine revenue. But Ian does believe that most of the money came from drug dealing.
So I've got my 200 grand from this week's drug deals. I make contact with someone who say, I've got 200 grand and they will say, meet my person at this location. The cash is handed over. The cash is then taken to a counting house one of a better expression, which has changed almost daily from what I can see from what we've identified in this case.
That cash is 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. By couriers, Ian is referring to people like Francesca. They're one part of a wider multi-level operation set up to service organised 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 point, the counting house where it's checked. Someone somewhere is keeping the accounts, so they know how much is owed to which people. So where in that operation did Alfalassi sit?
There are clearly others involved who 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 on. A leading light, but not the big boss. Instead, think of our philosophy as the department manager. The authorities believe that he delegated recruitment and day-to-day management of the cash mules to team leaders
Throughout 2021, the National Crime Agency linked several people to the smuggling network, confiscating their phones. By analyzing these, they discovered the mules, as people like Francesca, would be organised into different WhatsApp groups, each with a team leader. The team leader would arrange their travel and expenses, and submit these claims to the manager, Alfalasi.
Francesca, as a low-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 worn advantage in that it meant if any of the cashmerels got busted, there was only so much they could tell the police. It also meant that the higher up in 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.
the controllers unfortunately are not in the country where the crime that's generating this cash is being committed and in this day and age through digital communication you can do this from anywhere. Another aspect of the Sunshine and Lollipops operation that allowed it to run smoothly was the faith they placed in each other.
Hollywood and TV's got 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 and very professionally.
And that was actually part of the operation's success. The cash mules, the people who were most likely to be arrested, were just normal. Previously law abiding, with ordinary jobs. The last thing you want to do is when you're moving your money, draw attention to it by getting someone with a bit of form 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 grand for two days of work isn't bad, is it? And you can see the temptation. The business-like approach to it all. I think that's the shocking thing. It's serious crime, but it's just a day job to these people. 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 realise that my story was connected to cocaine. But you know, that's how far the reach is. For her role as a cash mule in the Sunshine and Lollipops gang, Francesca was arrested and charged.
I was suicidal at one point. I thought about taking my own life at least three times. Shit. The night before I first went into court, I was in a hotel room and I didn't have one ounce of 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 to be plastered all over the papers and that my business was going to be ruined and everything else that came with it. What stopped you from doing that? 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.
So you were part of a group that smuggled £100 million out of the UK. How do you reflect on that and moving that amount of money? I am genuinely sorry. If I could turn the clock back, I definitely would.
Francesca was ultimately convicted for her part in the international crime group. Some of you'll serve jail time, while others were given suspended sentences. Earlier this year, assets seized from Abdullah al-Felasi included savings and investments in Emirati banks, properties in the UAE, crypto currency funds, luxury cars, as well as three Rolexes and a Patek Philippe watch.
Our philosophy 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. We can literally just account for the cash that we seized.
We got 1.9, 1.4 and 400. What does that add up to? Let's put a 5 million. What do you make of the effect that so much money was going through the customs office at Dubai, wasn't it? Were the customs offices 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?
The cash declaration rules in the UAE slash Dubai are different to the UK and Europe. You have to declare it, otherwise there is a penalty, but it does stay clearly on their declaration form. The data is captured for statistical purposes. Now, I don't know why that wouldn't necessarily generate some kind of investigation, but it doesn't, and it hasn't. So that's not something I can really comment on.
I asked authorities in the UAE why the 83 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 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. We haven't got a lot of information about that, but it does appear that an element of it was changed into deer room. So the local currency, a lot of it was turned into physical deer rooms and then it was used for something or it went somewhere else. I don't know. We haven't got beyond that next stage.
So what is the next stage? All we have so far is Abdullah Al-Felass' name on a letter, handed to the cash mules saying the money they were carrying was for a Dubai-based business called omnivest gold trading. And if that money was drug money, as Ian suspects, I only really have one option to go to Dubai myself. So I'm locking on a door.
It's got no sign whatsoever. Hi. Yes, it is. So, let's show you. We're looking for only a vest. A gold, a trading? A trading? And investigate what happened to the rest of that £110 million. Yeah, I'm just opening that up. He looks a lot younger than his police mugshot. Yeah. But that is Abdullah Al-Felasi. It's clearly him. It's clearly him.
That's all next time on cocaine ink.
Cocaine Ink 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 Chantarasak. The executive producers are Will Rowe and Dan Box. Audio production and editing is by Jasper Leake with original music by Tom Burchall.
additional production support on this episode from Sharon Hisane, and Francesca was voiced by Liz Fletcher. And if you want to get in touch with any questions or thoughts on the series, email cocaineinc at thetimes.co.uk.
Coming soon on Apple TV+, you're looking for sequences in prime numbers. What if numbers didn't behave the way we assumed? The world's greatest mind. Your work is the cornerstone to all digital security. Bank accounts, defense systems, government records. Is now the most wanted. Do you know how dangerous you become? You understand the chaos it's coming. As we can stop this weapon from being created, we have to control it. I want to fire back. Starring Leo Woodall. Prime targets streaming on Apple TV+, on the 22nd January subscription required.
