Kathrine Frich
The warning lands as investigators expose a billion-pound laundering system that stretches from British cities to Moscow and even into a foreign bank.
British security agencies say a vast criminal finance network is funnelling drug money from UK streets into Russia’s intelligence services and its military campaign in Ukraine.
Billion-pound pipeline
Officials described a direct connection between “someone buying cocaine on a Friday night” and funds reaching the Kremlin’s security apparatus.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) says the network converts cash from UK drug markets into untraceable cryptocurrency before routing it into channels used by Russian state-linked actors, according to Daily Star reporting.
NCA deputy director for economic crime Sal Melki told the outlet that investigators had, for the first time, traced community-level drug proceeds “all the way through to geopolitics, sanctions evasion, the Russian industrial military complex and state-linked activity.”
The agency said the laundering syndicate was wealthy enough to purchase a majority stake in a bank in Kyrgyzstan, later used to support procurement for Russian forces.
Espionage links
The NCA disclosed that Russian intelligence services attempted to use the same network to fund a spy ring operating from a guest house in Great Yarmouth.
The group, led by Orlin Roussev and including Biser Dzhambazov, Katrin Ivanova, Tihomir Ivanchev, Ivan Stoyanov and Vanya Gaberova, was jailed earlier this year for activities linked to Moscow.
Home Office minister Dan Jarvis said the investigation exposed “corrupt tactics” used to bypass sanctions and support Russia’s war.
He stressed that UK authorities are “working tirelessly to detect, disrupt and prosecute” those aiding hostile states.
Key figures and methods
Investigators identified Russian national Ekaterina Zhdanova as the coordinator of the laundering scheme through her cryptocurrency enterprise, Smart.
U.S. authorities sanctioned her in 2023 for allegedly moving funds for Russian oligarchs. The NCA said various organised crime groups, including the Kinahan syndicate, had relied on the service.
The agency’s Operation Destabilise has so far uncovered the network’s presence in at least 28 UK towns and cities.
Over the past year, 45 suspected launderers were detained and more than £5.1 million seized in cash.
Since the investigation began, authorities have recorded 128 arrests and recovered over £25 million in cash and cryptocurrency in the UK, in addition to funds reclaimed by international partners.
Melki said the scale of the system showed how illicit finance “operates at all levels,” from street collections to purchasing foreign banks.
“These are serious criminals doing high numbers,” he told the outlet, urging the public to understand how local drug markets can intersect with global conflict.
Sources: Daily Star, NCA statements as reported
