Bureaux de change and currency transfer businesses are to be raided by police in a week-long crackdown on suspected drugs money laundering.<\/p>\n
They hope targeting the cash will reduce street violence linked to disputes between gangs by disrupting their activities.<\/p>\n
Police say 12 businesses in London will be raided on Tuesday – the first day of the operation<\/p>\n
Inspectors will visit another 39 to check they are complying with the law.<\/p>\n
There are around 9,000 money exchanges in London, handling tens of billions of pounds each year between them – about a fifth of the UK market.<\/p>\n
Detectives say the vast majority of these companies operate legitimately, but a “significant number” – which they call “launderettes” – are involved in illegal activity.<\/p>\n
This can include receiving bags or holdalls full of cash from drug deals and processing it to make it look as though it has come from a legitimate source.<\/p>\n
About \u00a3100bn is laundered through the UK every year, but it is not known much of this goes through money service businesses.<\/p>\n
The crackdown is a joint operation between the Metropolitan Police, HM Revenue & Customs and financial services watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority.<\/p>\n
Det Ch Supt Mick Gallagher, who is co-ordinating the operation, said: “Money drives drug dealing, drives violence.”<\/p>\n
He added: “The cash is the lifeblood of this. If you choke off the ability to trade effectively, then you disrupt the network.”<\/p>\n
Following a similar operation in 2011, police described the use of legitimate bureaux de change by money launderers as a “weak point”.<\/p>\n
A number of people were convicted of offences linked to drug dealing or money laundering\u00a0in a case that exposed one London firm’s links to organised crime networks<\/a>\u00a0from all over the UK.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"