Ripon pair who smuggled MILLIONS out of the UK convicted
They were part of a group of cash couriers who took £100 million from the UK to Dubai
Two people from Ripon have been convicted as part of an operation to bring down an £100 million money laundering operation.
55-year-old Jonathan Johnson and 44-year-old Jo Emma Larvin were part of a network that took £104 million in suitcases during 83 separate trips between December 2019 and October 2020.
They were paid around £3,000 for each trip and would be booked on business class flights due to the extra luggage allowance.
Larvin made two trips to Dubai in August and September 2020; one with another women when they took seven cases between them containing £2.2 million and another with her partner Jonathan Johnson, when they took eight suitcases containing £2.8 million.
They were arrested at Manchester Airport in March 2022.
The National Crime Agency said they believed the money was collected from criminal groups across the UK, and some of it was the profit made from drug dealing.
It was usually counted in rented apartments in London and separated into suitcases containing around £500,000 each.
The cases would be sprayed with coffee or air fresheners to prevent them being found by Border Force detection dogs.
NCA senior investigating officer Ian Truby said: “These couriers were important cogs in a large money laundering wheel.
“The crime group they belonged to was responsible for smuggling eye-watering amounts of criminal cash out of the UK.
“This simply wouldn’t have been possible without couriers doing their bidding, in return for a sunshine holiday and a slice of the profit.
“Cash is the lifeblood of organised crime groups, which they re-invest into activities such as drug trafficking. This fuels violence and insecurity around the world, which is why our investigation into other cash couriers continues.”