- The UK will recruit 500 new officers to trace criminal money, funded by £500 million from the economic crime levy.
- Officers will target money laundering networks, with a focus on the use of crypto assets by organized crime.
- The strategy builds on Operation Destabilise, which has already led to 119 arrests and over £25 million seized.
The British Home Office announced on Tuesday a £500 million investment to recruit 500 officers across police forces, the National Crime Agency (NCA), and the Crown Prosecution Service. The goal is to dismantle money laundering networks, specifically targeting the use of crypto assets by organized crime.
The NCA estimates that more than £100 billion is laundered through the UK annually, with the threat growing due to fintech, crypto, and AI. The new officers will build on Operation Destabilise, a successful investigation into Russian-speaking cash-to-crypto networks. The NCA plans new arrests and cash seizures against networks enabling Ransomware, hostile states, and the class A drugs trade.
The NCA’s economic crime center highlighted criminals’ “innovative use of crypto asset products to evade detection”, ranking cryptoassets third on its priority list. Sal Melki, the NCA’s deputy director for economic crime, stated that fighting financial crime “has become more complex as criminals embrace new technologies.” Consequently, the investment will fund an “innovative financial intelligence service for the UK,” according to the Home Office.
The government reported returns of nearly £350 million stripped from criminals last year, with over £1 billion denied and almost 4,000 money laundering convictions. British agencies have previously worked with crypto firms, freezing $12 million via Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, and Tether during a joint operation with the US Secret Service in March.
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