Speaker 1: Flower companies, food companies, real estate.
Speaker 2: Wow, a marble and ceramic trading company.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, the list goes on and on and on, doesn't.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's well over a dozen, nearly a couple
Speaker 1: of dozen companies here, is there.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is one thing that I don't even
Speaker 2: think the NCAA are aware of the extent of, you know,
Speaker 2: how many companies and how diverse.
Speaker 1: It was, it really is.
Speaker 3: So I'm a little bit nervous. I've never done this before.
Speaker 1: David Collins is speaking to a gold trader they met
Speaker 1: a few days.
Speaker 2: Before, one of them. Can you just remind me so
Speaker 2: how much goals am I able to buy? I think
Speaker 2: you said I could spend one hundred thousand dirhm?
Speaker 3: Is that right?
Speaker 1: The reason David says he's nervous is that he's undercover.
Speaker 1: He's continuing his investigation into how criminals like the Sunshine
Speaker 1: and Lollipops gang were able to carry millions of pounds
Speaker 1: worth of dirty money from the UK to Dubai and
Speaker 1: where the money went next.
Speaker 3: If you're taking to UK, then.
Speaker 1: David's had a tip that the money can end up
Speaker 1: being turned into gold.
Speaker 3: But in your hometown and your kid I don't know
Speaker 3: what's the rule there.
Speaker 1: The trader asked David if he's planning on taking the
Speaker 1: gold home to the UK.
Speaker 2: One or pol brothers customers.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they say that if you take gold Bartle it's
Speaker 4: a problem in the airport.
Speaker 1: He explains that simply taking a solid bar of gold
Speaker 1: might cause problems with UK customs, so they usually the.
Speaker 3: Chain, so there's no problem one. So the way you
Speaker 3: get around it is you put it as a chain
Speaker 3: round your neck.
Speaker 2: How much?
Speaker 1: The trader explains, It's easy to change the gold into
Speaker 1: jewelry that way, No one in customs is going to
Speaker 1: look at it, meaning you can carry that gold home unchecked,
Speaker 1: then sell the gold and spend the money.
Speaker 2: Did it so? I want to wait? So it's a
Speaker 2: bit lower.
Speaker 1: They discussed gold prices, when to invest, until David thinks
Speaker 1: it's time to ask the question because just.
Speaker 2: Between you and me, just between you and me, literally,
Speaker 2: some of the money might be for drugs in the UK.
Speaker 1: David says, the money might be from drugs in the UK.
Speaker 1: The gold trader pauses for a second, then says there
Speaker 1: is no issue on that one. I'm Fiona Hamilton and
Speaker 1: from the Times. The Sunday Times and News Corp Australia.
Speaker 1: This is Cocainey Episode seven, the Dubai Gold Rush.
Speaker 3: So final destination is to dub It is yes, very.
Speaker 1: Thanks Leman, Welcome to Dubai and Tasha Airport local time.
Speaker 2: Arrived in Dubai late one Monday night. Just like Francesca,
Speaker 2: the Cashmere I spoke to in the last episode, I
Speaker 2: picked up my bags and stroll past customs. Unlike Francesca,
Speaker 2: I didn't have millions of pounds stuffed into my suitcase
Speaker 2: to declare I'll take this one. Once outside, I get
Speaker 2: a taxi to my hotel. Very futuristic car, a brand
Speaker 2: new Tesla. We drive down the Shiksaied Road, the main
Speaker 2: motorway that runs the length of the city. Skyscraper after
Speaker 2: skyscraper filled with offices, condos and hotels whiz by. The
Speaker 2: city is the beating heart of the United Arab Emirates,
Speaker 2: one of the more business friendly economies in the Middle East.
Speaker 2: You're on, Oh, that's the Burge. I'm app yes, Wow,
Speaker 2: it looks like a windsail, doesn't it. Seeing the Burge
Speaker 2: Arab Hotel piqued my interest. It's a seven star hotel. Yeah,
Speaker 2: if that's even a thing. My taxi driver says, it's
Speaker 2: about ten pounds a night to stay. How much will
Speaker 2: it costs to have a wedding? Uh?
Speaker 5: Where you going?
Speaker 4: A lot?
Speaker 2: And it's here where Daniel Kinahan, an Irish boxing promoter
Speaker 2: accused of running a global drug cartel dubbed the Cocaine Cowboys,
Speaker 2: got married in twenty seventeen. The wedding was said to
Speaker 2: be a who's who of those in the global drug trade.
Speaker 2: The US Drug Enforcement Administration reportedly calculated that those on
Speaker 2: the guest list had shipped twenty three billion pounds worth
Speaker 2: of cocaine into Europe between them. Do you take the
Speaker 2: customers there? You have so many dimes? Have you? What
Speaker 2: jobs did he do?
Speaker 6: Though?
Speaker 2: Did he never tell you? Do you like business people?
Speaker 2: They never see ow they have got so much, They
Speaker 2: never tell the secret of how they earned money macabby jokes.
Speaker 2: This year, it was revealed that Daniel Kinahan's wife owns
Speaker 2: a multimillion dollar villa in Dubai with gleaming white walls,
Speaker 2: elegant arched doorways and bright red roof tiles. I remember
Speaker 2: Pete Costa, the Dutch pineapple trader linked to the torture
Speaker 2: chambers Fiona went to check out. Earlier in this series,
Speaker 2: he said to have had a Dubai real estate portfolio
Speaker 2: worth millions. It feels as if this modern city of
Speaker 2: luxurious skyscrapers and anti shopping malls has become the place
Speaker 2: of choice for cartel bosses to kick back and malax
Speaker 2: away from their home countries in a different jurisdiction, Which
Speaker 2: is what's led me to the next stage in our
Speaker 2: investigation into the global cocaine business, looking at what happens
Speaker 2: to the profits. Once you've got your criminal cash to Dubai,
Speaker 2: how do you then launder that money on a large scale. Well,
Speaker 2: you want to get it into the legitimate economy and
Speaker 2: that makes it harder for law enforcement to trace it.
Speaker 2: And I've been tipped that a good way to do
Speaker 2: this is to invest it in gold. Brilliant, Thanks for
Speaker 2: so this is the center.
Speaker 7: Of the main center, is this big shot.
Speaker 2: The next day, I leave the main tourist spot of
Speaker 2: Dubai and go to an area known as the gold
Speaker 2: souk Asuki is Arabic for market, and this one is
Speaker 2: full of gold traders at their stalls, So you can
Speaker 2: buy gold here Gije's. You can weigh it in the gigs?
Speaker 2: What like the bars of it? Wow? Do people do that?
Speaker 2: My taxi driver drops me off, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: By the streets are full of small stalls, perfume shops,
Speaker 2: coffee stands as well as this, there's plenty of gold shops.
Speaker 2: Dubai was established in the nineteenth century as a small
Speaker 2: fishing village, but since then it's booms. Oil money, tourism
Speaker 2: and construction have seen the money flooding in. But gold
Speaker 2: is also a big part of Dubai's economy. This souk
Speaker 2: I've just arrived at has existed since the nineteen forties,
Speaker 2: when traders and merchants from Iran and India first set
Speaker 2: up their shops. By in nineteen sixties, this area had
Speaker 2: become an important hob in a global gold trade. And
Speaker 2: today people say there's over ten tons of gold in
Speaker 2: this souk at any one time. But there's a dark
Speaker 2: side to this story. I've been told that cash is
Speaker 2: invested into gold by criminals. So how simple would it
Speaker 2: be for a British criminal to come here and do this.
Speaker 3: Of the sea.
Speaker 2: That's just what I wanted. I enter part the souk
Speaker 2: and now I'm officially undercover. I'm in an area which
Speaker 2: feels a bit like a department store, lined with display counters,
Speaker 2: and then gold trader shops off to the side. I
Speaker 2: feel on edge. There's plenty of security guards everywhere. A
Speaker 2: look a glass shop, windows dripping with gold jewelry hanging
Speaker 2: from pack displays. They are perfect and exactly what wanted.
Speaker 2: I'd buy a cheap pair of knockoff sunglasses and a
Speaker 2: nice belt, and I ask for a recommendation of a
Speaker 2: decent gold trader wherever they're going to buy investing. I'm
Speaker 2: directed to his shop. There's a group of men sitting
Speaker 2: about making deals underneath a TV screen showing the day's
Speaker 2: gold market prices, today's market. That's today's market. On the wall,
Speaker 2: there's a portrait of the ruler of Dubai. Strike up
Speaker 2: a conversation with one of them. So I'm just trying
Speaker 2: to work out how basically he's in his early thirties
Speaker 2: with thick black hair and an easy smile. We're going
Speaker 2: to call him Rashid. I won't use his real name.
Speaker 3: We'll say surly.
Speaker 2: Rashid reaches into a safe and shows me a gold bar.
Speaker 2: So that's a small, heavier than It's exactly how you'd
Speaker 2: imagine it would look, a rectangular block, like the kind
Speaker 2: you see being piled into a robbers van in a
Speaker 2: Hollywood heist film. It's quite smart, Rashid's polite, but it's
Speaker 2: noisy here and not private enough for the kind of
Speaker 2: deal I want to make great thanks for. Outside Rashid's store,
Speaker 2: I pass a couple more display counters. I enter another
Speaker 2: gold traders, just shopping after that price. Much the same happens.
Speaker 2: The trader pulls a bar of gold from a safe
Speaker 2: and puts it on the counter. How much I leave?
Speaker 2: But I'm a bit spooked. I wasn't sure he trusted me.
Speaker 2: I might have just been imagining things, but I've done
Speaker 2: a lot of undercover work, and sometimes you get a
Speaker 2: feeling that the person doesn't quite buy your story. I
Speaker 2: felt more secure chatting with Rashid, so I head out
Speaker 2: of the gold Zuk and a few days later give
Speaker 2: Rashid a call. I'm okay, how are you?
Speaker 3: So I came in.
Speaker 2: We get pleasantries out of the way and quickly move
Speaker 2: on to business. Staying under cover. My plan is to
Speaker 2: pretend I'm actually a cocaine gangster. With a fortune in
Speaker 2: drug profits I need to launder. Rashid suggests how I
Speaker 2: could carry gold out of Dubai back into the UK
Speaker 2: no questions asked. He says, I can turn my potential
Speaker 2: gold purchase into a chain to wear through customs without
Speaker 2: paying any taxes, and that he has British customers who
Speaker 2: have done it in the past. So the way you
Speaker 2: get around it is you put it as a chain
Speaker 2: round your neck, absolutly, absactly. I want to find out
Speaker 2: how easy it would be for cocaine gangster to buy
Speaker 2: thousands of pounds worth of gold here, and what if
Speaker 2: any checks there would be on the source of the money.
Speaker 2: So what is Rashid willing to accept?
Speaker 5: Just name, your passport number, passport on your phone.
Speaker 2: He says. All he really needs is my name for
Speaker 2: the invoice and my passport number to put on the bill.
Speaker 2: A photo of my passport on my phone is fine.
Speaker 8: And you were found on some time and there's a problem.
Speaker 2: But what about the source of my funds? If I
Speaker 2: was looking to launder my cocaine profits, I certainly wouldn't
Speaker 2: want anyone doing checks on where that money was from.
Speaker 2: So I want to see how much gold Rashid might
Speaker 2: be willing to sell me without any paperwork or check X.
Speaker 3: The one one thing is, so do you need any
Speaker 3: checks to.
Speaker 2: Know where I've got the money?
Speaker 3: If it's more than like ve so two three kg,
Speaker 3: it's okay with no checks?
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, because it's just the one thing is I'm
Speaker 2: not sure where the money has come from.
Speaker 3: Yeah, just between you and me, Just between you and me.
Speaker 2: Literally, I think some of the money might be from
Speaker 2: like crime, maybe drugs, like okay, that's just some of
Speaker 2: the money might be from like drugs in the u K.
Speaker 2: But I'm not sure. But if there's no checks, is
Speaker 2: that okay?
Speaker 3: You're going to me about exactly?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, issue on that point.
Speaker 2: So what just happened? I just confessed some of the
Speaker 2: money may come from drugs and crime. At first, Rashid
Speaker 2: says he can't hear me, but after repeating it, I'm
Speaker 2: confident he's understood my proposition. He says, if I bring
Speaker 2: him dear ams, the local currency and not British pounds,
Speaker 2: then there is no issue on that one. So what
Speaker 2: does this actually mean? Rashid has admitted that he will
Speaker 2: sell me three kilograms of gold in cash, knowing the
Speaker 2: source of that money could well be from drugs such
Speaker 2: as cocaine. That's one hundred and eighty thousand pounds of
Speaker 2: criminal money or three hundred and forty grand in Aussie dollars,
Speaker 2: nearly a quarter of a million of US. It's that simple.
Speaker 2: If you, as a cocaine boss running a cartel, could
Speaker 2: get your money here to Dubai. You can launder nearly
Speaker 2: two hundred thousand pounds with barely a proper passport check.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, great stuff. I've be in touched. Take care
Speaker 3: all right, thye.
Speaker 2: So that was fascinating. He was not kind of phased
Speaker 2: at all. Yeah, I mean I am amazed actually by
Speaker 2: how easy it would be. You know, if I was
Speaker 2: a criminal, we could be moving kilos of gold very
Speaker 2: quickly in the next few weeks. Would be able to
Speaker 2: quite easily launder significant amounts of money through that gold trader.
Speaker 2: Following that call to Vashid, I revealed that I was,
Speaker 2: in fact a journalist. I asked him if he had
Speaker 2: anything to say about our phone conversation. He told me
Speaker 2: that his business would require evidence of the source of
Speaker 2: funds for gold purchases of around ten thousand pounds, and
Speaker 2: he had no knowledge of criminals buying gold in Dubai.
Speaker 2: If you look at it.
Speaker 8: As a business model, you'll always try and stave on
Speaker 8: step ahead of your competitor. And there are some really
Speaker 8: clever people who've offered in crime and they will always
Speaker 8: find another way to stay half a step ahead, and
Speaker 8: unfortunately it's just a reality we often have to play
Speaker 8: catch up.
Speaker 2: This is Ian Truby. Ian's the National Crime Agency detective
Speaker 2: I spoke to in the last episode who helped put
Speaker 2: abdullahl Fallasse, the ring leader of the Sunshiner Lollipops gang,
Speaker 2: behind bars. That's the group that smuggled over one hundred
Speaker 2: million pounds out of the UK, using al Fallas's business
Speaker 2: Omnivest Gold Trading as a cover. Once some money got
Speaker 2: to Dubai, Ian and his team believer was laundered. But
Speaker 2: how exactly the gang did it was harder to work out.
Speaker 8: Sterling's gone in been changed into local currency and that
Speaker 8: currency is in turn being handed off to somebody else.
Speaker 8: We've got some evidence that there were some investment in gold,
Speaker 8: there was some investment in mining interests, but how much
Speaker 8: of that investment was from this particular cash I can't
Speaker 8: comment I just don't have that data why gold. Gold
Speaker 8: is a really attractive commodity for criminals. It holds its value.
Speaker 8: You can source it from countries where there is no control,
Speaker 8: places like Africa, South America. There's an awful lot of
Speaker 8: illegal mining going on. Unfortunately, I don't think it's too
Speaker 8: difficult to get that gold into the legitimate supply chains,
Speaker 8: get it stuck in a vault and that's it. That
Speaker 8: value is set there. It's an attractive commodity. It's an
Speaker 8: appreciating commodity.
Speaker 2: So following the thread, I mean quite literally, coca plants
Speaker 2: turned into cocaine transported by the cartels. You know, the
Speaker 2: commodity has been sold in the UK that is then
Speaker 2: being turned into gold bars at the end of that process.
Speaker 8: From my interpretation of what I've seen on this, an
Speaker 8: element of that was happening Dubai being a gold market.
Speaker 8: Now as much as anything else, that gold market would
Speaker 8: also potentially be used by the criminals for laundering purposes
Speaker 8: or the value transferred to by more cocaine or other
Speaker 8: illicit commodity.
Speaker 2: So as Ian says, the National Crime Agency believes some
Speaker 2: of what Alphallaci did with the money from the Sunshine
Speaker 2: and Lollipops gang could have ended up in a Dubai
Speaker 2: gold souk. Now it was time to fully turn my
Speaker 2: attention to al Phallasse and his front company, Omnives Gold Trading.
Speaker 2: This was the company whose name was on letters that
Speaker 2: the cash mules showed customs officials when arriving at Dubai Airport.
Speaker 8: The next station is Business Bay.
Speaker 2: I got hold of some documents that showed Omnives Gold
Speaker 2: Trading was located in an area of Dubai called Business Bay,
Speaker 2: an area packed with corporate high rises and there's ever
Speaker 2: swanky hotels. It's hot. You sometimes forget when you're in
Speaker 2: Dubai with all the air corn in the hotels, taxi
Speaker 2: and metro that this is a city in a desert.
Speaker 2: I make my way to one specific office building. It's
Speaker 2: a thirty six story glass skyscraper called Prime Tower. It's
Speaker 2: in this building that Abdullah Alflass's company, Omnives Gold Trading
Speaker 2: was registered. The documents also reveal that Omnives Gold was
Speaker 2: liquidated in November twenty twenty one, just days before Alflassi
Speaker 2: was arrested. In layman's terms, that means that officially stop
Speaker 2: trading and closed down, but I want to know if
Speaker 2: there's any trace of it left in this building, and
Speaker 2: if anyone remembers anything about it. And to be on
Speaker 2: the safe side, I stay undercover. Dubai and the UAE
Speaker 2: is not a country with great media freedom. I don't
Speaker 2: want my cover to be blown. So I head inside,
Speaker 2: pretending to be a British businessman. If anyone asks, I
Speaker 2: walk quickly past security, looking straight ahead and find the lifts.
Speaker 2: I go up a few floors from the documents. I'm
Speaker 2: pretty sure I've got the right one. I exit the
Speaker 2: lift and I'm in a corridor filled with pre walls,
Speaker 2: dark floor tiles, and windowless wooden doors. Each one has
Speaker 2: a small sign to the side of the frame with
Speaker 2: the name of the business and an office number.
Speaker 9: Remember Omnivest Gold. I have seen this name. I think
Speaker 9: I have seen. You are not going to get side,
Speaker 9: but I talked I have seen somewhere. Maybe he can garden.
Speaker 2: One of the office workers walking through the holes remembers
Speaker 2: omnives Gold trading. He confers with a colleague or friend,
Speaker 2: who then takes me to where he thinks it once was.
Speaker 9: Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 2: So I'm knocking on a door it's got no sign
Speaker 2: on the door whatsoever. A man answers, I'm looking for
Speaker 2: Omnivest Gold Trading.
Speaker 9: My English, another dated thank you.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to look in to see a bit more,
Speaker 2: but I'm asked to wait a moment. Hi, I think
Speaker 2: the thanks showing you. We're looking for Omnives Gold Trading
Speaker 2: gold gold. This time, a woman with dark brown eyes
Speaker 2: answers the door, wearing a hitje ab. It's called Omnivest.
Speaker 2: She doesn't really give me the chance to see in
Speaker 2: keeping the door slightly. Ajar, I'm so close to getting
Speaker 2: a good look inside the office where Alphallas's money laundering
Speaker 2: operation was registered. You're not Omnis because I thought you were.
Speaker 3: It's completely different.
Speaker 1: Another activity, another company.
Speaker 2: The woman politely tells me that Omnives Gold Trading isn't here,
Speaker 2: As she says, the current business is completely different. Another activity,
Speaker 2: another company. Thank you so much, thank you, very grateful.
Speaker 2: I feel deflated and desperate to know more about Abdullah
Speaker 2: al Falassi and what he was doing with the money
Speaker 2: that has been laundered out here in Dubai. Was Omnivest
Speaker 2: Gold physically once here behind that door were the people
Speaker 2: in the office or did al Faalaci simply rent it
Speaker 2: so he had an address for his documents and that
Speaker 2: one hundred million pounds plus of criminal money, much of
Speaker 2: it from the cocaine trade. Where did it go? It
Speaker 2: feels like it's dissolved into thin air. But it's time
Speaker 2: to leave Dubai and head back to the UK. I've
Speaker 2: got a flight to catch and have exhausted all my
Speaker 2: leads for now. I'm here. I'm here.
Speaker 6: Hi.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh Hi David, Yeah, not bad.
Speaker 2: Back home in Manchester. A coal fi owner, my colleague
Speaker 2: on this investigation. Obviously, you know we've been looking at
Speaker 2: this Sunshine and Lollipop's Cash Mules gang the National Crime Agency.
Speaker 2: I want to show us something because I have a
Speaker 2: fresh lead on Abdullah Flassi. A former colleague of ours,
Speaker 2: John Simpson, who used to be a crime correspondent at times,
Speaker 2: I had gotten hold of some documents which he was
Speaker 2: happy to share. I've sent you an email. Can you
Speaker 2: see the one? It's a pdf Omnives Gold Trading LLC.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm just opening that up.
Speaker 2: The documents were looking at give me much more information
Speaker 2: about Abdullahu Flasse if you just go into the second
Speaker 2: pdf on that email. If you can see what one
Speaker 2: of them shows is all the companies that he was
Speaker 2: involved in, not just omni vest gold trading, He had
Speaker 2: stakes and a whole load of organizations, most of them
Speaker 2: listed as a director or general manager.
Speaker 1: Gosh, there's a really long list, isn't that.
Speaker 2: It's huge.
Speaker 1: Flower companies, food companies, Yeah, yeah, real estate, Wow, a.
Speaker 2: Marble and ceramic trading company.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, the list goes on and on and on, doesn't.
Speaker 1: I mean there's well over a dozen, nearly a couple
Speaker 1: of dozen companies here, is there?
Speaker 2: The scope is huge. I don't quite know what to
Speaker 2: make of it all. I mean, this is one thing
Speaker 2: that I don't even think the NCAA are aware of
Speaker 2: the extent of you know, how many companies and how
Speaker 2: diverse it was, it really is. There's something else was
Speaker 2: going to show you as well, which I think you'll
Speaker 2: be interested in. Yeah, just on that original email where
Speaker 2: the PDFs were. If you click on do you see
Speaker 2: the first link? We're looking at a website that showed
Speaker 2: Alpha Lasse's reach went far beyond the UK and the UAE,
Speaker 2: because it doesn't stop in Dubai. They actually stretched the
Speaker 2: West Africa as.
Speaker 1: Well, oh yeah, I wasn't expert. That's really interesting.
Speaker 2: The website is for a company called Atlantic Holdings. The
Speaker 2: site is no longer available online, but this is an
Speaker 2: archive version of it. Atlantic Holdings is based in Ghana.
Speaker 1: Oh I see you're in Ghana now, So.
Speaker 2: Now we're in Ghana and it was the parent company
Speaker 2: of Omnives Gold Trading, the company Alpha Lasse used to
Speaker 2: give cover to his cash mules. So what we can
Speaker 2: see here is that in July sixteenth, twenty nineteen, Omnives
Speaker 2: Gold Trading Llc was part of Atlantic Holdings and on
Speaker 2: its website it says Omnives Gold Trading LLC is our
Speaker 2: trading arm in Dubai specializing in gold and rough diamond trading.
Speaker 2: We import raw gold, refine and sell to financial institutions
Speaker 2: within the UAE. Oh wow, So what does this all mean?
Speaker 2: Basically from what this website is saying, Al Fallaci's company,
Speaker 2: Omnives Gold Trading was the Dubai arm of a business
Speaker 2: based in Ghana, West Africa. Right and get this Furda.
Speaker 2: Omnivest is also a member of the UAE Kimberly Process
Speaker 2: Certification scheme that is a global initiative for stemming the
Speaker 2: trade in conflict diamonds and promoting peace and security. And
Speaker 2: yet we know this same company that claims to have
Speaker 2: this certificate for this scheme is basically being used as
Speaker 2: a cover for organized crime.
Speaker 1: It's just extraordinary, isn't it incredible?
Speaker 2: I think it's worth repeating this. According to this website,
Speaker 2: the company omnives Gold Trading was allegedly part of a
Speaker 2: global initiative to promote peace and security around conflict diamonds.
Speaker 2: If true, the audacity of this does amaze me. Alphaalasei
Speaker 2: was using omnivs Gold as a front for organized crime.
Speaker 2: I've contacted the Kimberly Process certification scheme asking if he
Speaker 2: had any comment on this, but they didn't respond. We
Speaker 2: now know that al Fallaci owned a whole host of businesses.
Speaker 2: We also know that omnives Gold was part of that
Speaker 2: parent company, Atlantic Holdings. But who was Alphallase We know
Speaker 2: he's an emorati whose wife's family owned property in London,
Speaker 2: and previous to this had no criminal record, But the
Speaker 2: website revealed new information about his past and also something
Speaker 2: more about his business. If you click about us and
Speaker 2: scroll down, it says our board members and there's three
Speaker 2: of them on there, and one of them he looks
Speaker 2: a lot younger than his police mugshot, and he's kind
Speaker 2: of wearing his emirs white robes and headdress.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's yeah, but.
Speaker 2: That is Abdullah al Fhaalasei. What we're looking at is
Speaker 2: the three board members on the Atlantic Holdings website back
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty, and there he is. Abdullah Alphaalassi is
Speaker 2: on the board. He's not just a director of Omnivest
Speaker 2: Gold Trading, but sits on the board of the wider
Speaker 2: umbrella organization. Interestingly, he goes by the name Abdullah bin Beyat.
Speaker 2: His full name is Abdullah Mohammad Ali bin Beyat Alphaalassi.
Speaker 1: He just hasn't actually said al Fallaci on there, but
Speaker 1: it's clearly him.
Speaker 2: It's clearly him.
Speaker 1: Like some of these details that he holds an MSc
Speaker 1: from the Dubai Please College. Yeah, and there it mentions
Speaker 1: omni Vest directly.
Speaker 5: Today, I'm going to take you on a trip around by.
Speaker 2: Picture this get at the highest three sixty infinity pool
Speaker 2: in the world exclusively. In recent years, Dubai's become a
Speaker 2: holiday destination and the UA is targeted tourists with adverts
Speaker 2: like the ones I'm watching.
Speaker 6: Now as City the redefines the Lasuer experience. They're talking
Speaker 6: about fine dining, they're taking you from the sky, the
Speaker 6: arcis is in the raven sea, and of course vintage
Speaker 6: rides for how you're looking like a movie star.
Speaker 2: But as I'm finding out, behind this veneer a place
Speaker 2: of fun, some and affordable decadence if you look for it,
Speaker 2: there's an uneasy tension. In February this year, the global
Speaker 2: watchdog that looks at how countries deal with money laundering
Speaker 2: took the UAE off its Gray list. That's the list
Speaker 2: of countries under increased monitoring for how they're dealing with
Speaker 2: things like money laundering and terrorist financing. While working on
Speaker 2: this series, I contacted the UA authorities and asked them
Speaker 2: about Omnives Gold and Abdullah al Fallase. Here's part of
Speaker 2: their response, read by one of the producers on this show.
Speaker 5: In February this year, the Financial Action Task Force, the
Speaker 5: global standard setter for measures to fight money laundering, praised
Speaker 5: the UAE's significant progress. The UAE is committed to continuing
Speaker 5: these efforts and actions more than ever today and over
Speaker 5: the longer term.
Speaker 2: Back to al Pallasse, omnives Gold and Atlantic Holdings. Now
Speaker 2: we know that Abdullah Felase went to jail in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two for being the ringleader of the Sunshine and
Speaker 2: Lollipops money laundering operation. We also know that the website
Speaker 2: for Atlantic Holdings is no longer active and there is
Speaker 2: no sign of Omnivs Gold trading anymore. But I came
Speaker 2: across from other website with a very similar name. It's
Speaker 2: called Atlantic trust Holding.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm just looking through this one now.
Speaker 2: So the interesting thing about this company, which is still
Speaker 2: active is that it shares a lot of the same
Speaker 2: companies that Atlantic Holdings had.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: I wanted to know more about this and if this
Speaker 2: company has any connection to Alpha Lasse, who's currently in
Speaker 2: prison in the UK. So I contacted Atlantic trust Holding
Speaker 2: and asked them. The chairman sent me a response, part
Speaker 2: of which is read here by producer.
Speaker 7: Atlantic Trust Holding has been in existence for close to
Speaker 7: twenty years now and had no dealings with Atlantic Holdings
Speaker 7: of Dubai. The website for Atlantic Holdings of Dubai was
Speaker 7: controlled by Alpha Lasse and his business partner. We had
Speaker 7: nothing to do with any of his activities as a
Speaker 7: matter of fact, I've had I had no contact with
Speaker 7: Abdullah for some eight years now. We know nothing about
Speaker 7: his activities, if anything at all. I would be someone
Speaker 7: to be jubilant because Abdullah used his influence to literally
Speaker 7: bully people.
Speaker 2: So that's it. Then that trail ends there. I still
Speaker 2: don't know exactly what Alpha Lassi did with the one
Speaker 2: hundred and ten million that was smuggled into Dubai using
Speaker 2: his signature and Omnivus gold as a cover, but I
Speaker 2: have managed to find out more about his various business
Speaker 2: interests in the UAE than has ever been known before.
Speaker 2: This tangled web has shown me how international drugs gangs
Speaker 2: can launder their money. Following the web of companies laid
Speaker 2: out in these documents shows me just how complex and
Speaker 2: multinational the modern day cocaine business has become. We followed
Speaker 2: the raw material from the fields where it's grown, to
Speaker 2: the ports and tunnels where it's exported out of South
Speaker 2: America to Europe, at the massive distribution hub in Rotterdam,
Speaker 2: to the UK and then Dubai. At every stage a
Speaker 2: different criminal group has been involved in that part of
Speaker 2: the business. And then from here the money trail has
Speaker 2: suddenly split and leads into different countries and different businesses,
Speaker 2: to gold, to mining. The National Crime Agency has also
Speaker 2: told me that an alleged Sunshine and Lollipops gang member
Speaker 2: was found with gold bars in Tanzanaia. I've also heard
Speaker 2: via a source that Alphallasse was in contact with people
Speaker 2: in the Netherlands and Hong Kong. While Alphallasse is now
Speaker 2: behind bars, we know the profits from the cocaine trade
Speaker 2: are at a record high, with money laundering widespread, and
Speaker 2: I've got no doubt that there's more people like al
Speaker 2: Fallasse willing to do the same. Fiona and I finish
Speaker 2: off our chat. I don't think I've ever seen an
Speaker 2: illustration quite so clear.
Speaker 4: Step by step, yeah, of kind of from the UK
Speaker 4: coat trade, through cash money through to Dubai. Let me
Speaker 4: have this purchase of gold in Tanzania and Africa. It's
Speaker 4: like a full circle, isn't it Almost?
Speaker 1: It just shows, doesn't it, how this is obviously a
Speaker 1: very fruitful area for the type of people that we're
Speaker 1: looking into to legitimize money and put it into other
Speaker 1: ventures far away from where the drug dealing is originally
Speaker 1: going on that you've been sort of exposing in this podcast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, so is that the end of our trail?
Speaker 2: Well no, not quite. So this is it. This is
Speaker 2: the end of the line. Because my other colleague on
Speaker 2: this investigation, Stephen Drill, has arrived home after visiting the
Speaker 2: Coker Fields in Columbia and the Narco Tunnels in Mexico
Speaker 2: earlier in this series. And while we thought the money
Speaker 2: trail had disappeared into this web of overseas investments and
Speaker 2: corporate records, Stephen was just about to pick that trail up,
Speaker 2: running right past his front door. Hi, my name's Stephen Drill.
Speaker 8: I'm a journalist.
Speaker 2: I just want to touch base. Are you the owner
Speaker 2: of the property?
Speaker 7: I just was wondering if the price has been seized
Speaker 7: by the police or what's happening with it now?
Speaker 2: That's next time in the final episode of Cocaine Inc.
Speaker 1: Cocaine Nick is a joint investigation from The Times, The
Speaker 1: Sunday Times and News Corp Australia. The reporters are David Collins,
Speaker 1: Steven Drill and me Fiona Hamilton. Additional reporting on this
Speaker 1: episode from John Simpson at The News Movement. The series
Speaker 1: is produced by Sam Chanterassak. The executive producers are Will
Speaker 1: Rowe and Dan Box. Audio production and editing is by
Speaker 1: Jasper Leak, with original music by Tom Burchell. Special thanks
Speaker 1: on this episode to our security team Chris Kemp and
Speaker 1: Pete Emerson Thomas And if you want to get in
Speaker 1: touch with any questions or thoughts on the series, email
Speaker 1: cocaine In at the Times dot co dot uk