Government signals £500 million crackdown on money launderers

New officers will be deployed across police forces, the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Crown Prosecution Service to follow the money behind serious and organised crime, including through Russian and other international money laundering networks.   

The new investigators will focus on going after the kingpins behind Britain’s dirty money trade. By blocking and seizing their money, the Government will cut off the cash that fuels organised crime: from drug trafficking and people smuggling through to the sham businesses that blight the nation’s High Streets.

Backed by £500 million of investment over three years from the Economic Crime Levy, the crackdown forms part of the new Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy, which sets out how the UK will make it harder for criminals to profit from their actions.  

The announcement is made alongside the release of new figures showing that almost £350 million of dirty money was stripped from criminals and over £1 billion denied in a year-long crackdown. £26 million was returned into the pockets of victims, 2,700 illicit finance operations were disrupted and convictions for money laundering have increased to almost 4,000.

A significant portion of money recovered from criminals will be directed towards public services and law enforcement, ensuring that the proceeds of crime are put to work in protecting members of the public.

Almost £1 million was seized from people smugglers and immigration offenders throughout the past year, depriving criminal gangs of the funds they use to facilitate crossings as part of a wider crackdown on illegal migration.

Grip on communities  

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “We are putting 500 more officers on the trail of dirty money, going after the criminal bosses behind organised crime and stripping them of the funds they use to fuel drug trafficking, people smuggling and other serious crime.”  

Mahmood added: “By going after the profits of Britain’s biggest criminal gangs, we will break their grip on our communities, put the money back in victims’ pockets and ensure crime doesn’t pay.”

Security Minister Dan Jarvis stated: “The fight against organised crime doesn’t stop at arresting offenders. We must also go after the dirty money that fuels their operations by strengthening our ability to trace, seize and recover criminal assets. Every pound taken out of criminal hands weakens organised crime, helps to deliver justice for victims and makes our communities safer.”

Lucy Rigby KC MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, observed: “Dirty money doesn’t just fund unlawful activity. It undermines the integrity of our financial system and allows criminals to profit from the misery they cause.  

That’s why we’re investing over £500 million to put more officers on the trail of illicit funds, including international money laundering networks.”  

Rigby concluded: “This crackdown will make Britain a harder place for criminals to launder money and ensure that, when we recover criminals’ assets, that funding will go towards further bolstering law enforcement.”

The NCA estimates that more than £100 billion is laundered through the UK or UK corporate structures each year. Money laundering networks move and conceal the profits of drug trafficking, fraud, people smuggling and corruption, while also helping hostile actors and ‘elites’ to move illicit wealth through the international financial system. The threat has grown in recent years due to the rise of fintech, crypto and Artificial Intelligence.

The officers will build on the success of the NCA’s Operation Destabilise, disrupting Russian money laundering networks operating across the UK and overseas. Through a new campaign of arrests, cash seizures and alternative methods, the NCA will disrupt and expose the money laundering networks operating on the streets of the UK that enable hostile state malign activity, ransomware groups and the global movement of deadly Class A drugs.

Throughout the operation, 119 suspected money launderers were arrested and over £25 million in cash and crypto seized in less than 12 months.

Corrosive threat 

Sal Melki, deputy director for economic crime at the NCA, noted: “Financial crime is a corrosive threat that harms our communities and economy. It puts money in the hands of those that traffic, abuse, scam and corrupt. It undercuts legitimate business, deprives our public services and furthers the interests of nations hostile to the UK and our way of life.”

Melki went on to comment: “Combating financial crime has become more complex as criminals embrace new technologies to increase the scale and harm of their offending. Our foundations are strong. Now, the NCA and its partners are collectively driving a systemic shift to modernise our approach to combating all forms of illicit finance. This strategy and the investment behind it will be key to achieving our aims.”

Further, Melki said: “It will allow us to build an innovative financial intelligence service for the UK, deepen our public private partnerships and, crucially, increase our operational capacity to proactively target money launderers and the financial architecture upon which they rely. We will pursue them across borders, seize their criminal wealth and remove them from our businesses, institutions and High Streets.”

Steve Smart, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the Financial Conduct Authority, explained: “We support the ambitious actions set out in this new strategy and will continue to prioritise fighting financial crime. A whole-system effort, both here at home and abroad, is the only way in which we can crack down on organised crime and combat threats to national security and economic stability.”

Further, Smart stated: “Reforms to anti-money laundering supervision provide a golden opportunity to strengthen the supervision of professional services, ensure more consistent oversight and help us to identify and disrupt crime.”

The Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy will strengthen the UK’s fight against illicit finance. It sets out how the Government will work with the private sector and international partners to recover more criminal assets, disrupt money laundering networks and reinvest dirty cash into protecting the British public. The strategy will modernise the UK’s response to money laundering by investing in new intelligence capabilities, advanced technology and stronger public-private collaboration.

It builds on the work of the High Street Organised Crime Unit, which is leading a nationwide crackdown on ‘dodgy’ shops across the High Street. Police forces and Trading Standards have been backed with additional funding and the Government is changing the law on closure orders in order to keep rogue vape and barber shops shut and criminal bosses behind bars.

Strong track record

Graham McNulty, director of the Serious Fraud Office, said: “Tackling the most serious and complex financial crime means relentlessly pursuing the money as well as the criminals behind it. Since April 2026, the SFO has secured £15.4 million through judicial outcomes, adding to our strong track record of stripping criminals of their illicit gains.”

McNulty continued: “As part of the new Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy, the SFO is playing its part in strengthening international asset recovery and supporting a review of money laundering prosecutions, helping to ensure criminals cannot hide, move or profit from their crimes.”

John Herriman, CEO at the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI), said: “Criminality is a scourge on our High Streets that rips the heart out of local communities. CTSI wholeheartedly supports the Government’s commitment to tackling ‘dodgy’ shops on the High Street, including clamping down on the dirty money that funds criminality.”

Herriman added: “Financial investigators are a vital tool in seizing and confiscating criminal assets, as well as helping to identify victims so they can seek the redress they deserve. We hope that this additional funding, along with other targeted funding and measures which will directly support Trading Standards teams’ ability to close ‘dodgy’ shops, will help lessen the burden of organised criminality on our High Streets. We look forward to supporting the Government’s strategy to reinvigorate our High Streets and to its continued support for Trading Standards teams.”

Following the money

Emmeline Taylor, Professor of Criminology at City St George’s, University of London and director of APTUS Business Crime Research Centre, said: “Following the money is essential if we are serious about disrupting organised crime. The Government’s announcement about 500 new officers and £500 million of investment is significant.”  

Professor Taylor continued: “My latest report, titled ‘The Legitimate High Street Framework’, highlights how organised criminal networks are exploiting legitimate-looking premises to sell illicit tobacco, stolen goods and other illegal commodities. These activities form part of wider criminal economies that distort competition and displace honest businesses.”

In addition, Professor Tayor said: “The opportunity now is to connect local intelligence with national financial intelligence and enforcement, targeting not only criminal assets, but also the businesses and networks that enable organised crime. If we want a genuine ‘High Street Renaissance’, we must prevent criminal economies from taking root and driving law-abiding citizens out of business.”