Speaker 1: Just a warning, this episode contains descriptions of suicidal thoughts.
Speaker 2: From what I've seen, he had a very good lifestyle,
Speaker 2: expensive watches, nice places to live, certainly had a top
Speaker 2: of arrange Mercedes for the top of my head, traveled
Speaker 2: a lot, had use of his wife's family's flat in London.
Speaker 2: He's got no criminal record, He's not known to law
Speaker 2: enforcement anywhere in the world prior to this, so you know,
Speaker 2: he had all of the front of a successful, legitimate businessman.
Speaker 3: I've relived this in my head over and over so
Speaker 3: many times because it was just horrendous.
Speaker 1: It's six am on a late spring morning in northern England.
Speaker 1: The sun has already risen. On the top floor of
Speaker 1: a terraced house, a woman is peacefully asleep.
Speaker 3: I was just done me on in bed. I remember
Speaker 3: I didn't have any underwear on. I just had a
Speaker 3: brower on.
Speaker 1: Suddenly there's a banging her front door.
Speaker 3: I thought it was a postman with a parcel or something.
Speaker 3: So I remember, like EFFI and Jeffing walking down the
Speaker 3: stairs thinking why the fuck are they banging so loud.
Speaker 3: I got a towel and wrapped it around me, you know,
Speaker 3: so I could sort of eye behind the door and
Speaker 3: grab my parcel. I opened the door and they said
Speaker 3: it was the police. And my initial thought was something's
Speaker 3: happened to my son, because if the police are knocking
Speaker 3: your door at that time, you think something's happened to
Speaker 3: somebody that you know. Never in a million years did
Speaker 3: I think it was anything that I'd done. That was
Speaker 3: not my initial thought.
Speaker 1: As it turns out, her initial thought was wrong. The
Speaker 1: police are here to speak to her.
Speaker 3: At first, I only saw like three of them on
Speaker 3: the doorstep, and then when I looked around them, I
Speaker 3: saw that there was laws more of them. I remember
Speaker 3: saying I've got no onncas on because they were trying
Speaker 3: to put their way in, and I was like, I've
Speaker 3: got no fucking knickers on, and they were like, yeah,
Speaker 3: we don't care, and just push the door and just
Speaker 3: sort of frog match me upstairs, and then said I'm
Speaker 3: go in the bedroom with this female officer and get dressed.
Speaker 3: I remember I was on my period at the time
Speaker 3: and saying to her, I need to go like sort
Speaker 3: myself out, and she was like, well, I need to
Speaker 3: come with you, and she basically came with me to
Speaker 3: the toilet.
Speaker 1: The officer watches her every movement. She's concerned the woman
Speaker 1: might flush away her mobile phone, which could have incriminating evidence.
Speaker 3: I remember one of the officers looking around my house
Speaker 3: and saying it's a nice house, like you're not the
Speaker 3: sort of person to be involved in this sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: They let her get dressed. She's taken into her front room,
Speaker 1: where she's surrounded by a group of officers. They're from
Speaker 1: the UK's National Crime Agency, tasked with fighting organized crime.
Speaker 1: They're often compared to the FBI.
Speaker 3: And then they sat me down on the sofa, read
Speaker 3: me my rights. I was thinking, this is not me,
Speaker 3: this is not happening to me, this is not real.
Speaker 3: It was like a dream. And then they basically said
Speaker 3: I was arrested for money laundring and being involved in
Speaker 3: an international crime gang. And then I just burst out crying.
Speaker 1: I'm Fiona Hamilton and from The Times, The Sunday Times
Speaker 1: and News Corp Australia. This is Cocaine Inc. Episode six,
Speaker 1: Sunshine and Lollipops. Last time, David Collins was in Merseyside
Speaker 1: where the cocaine retail market is chaotic but there's still
Speaker 1: profit to be made.
Speaker 4: Yes there is, but the problem of drug money is
Speaker 4: it's dirty, meaning if you try to spend the cash
Speaker 4: that you made from selling coke, then that's going to
Speaker 4: raise suspicions about where all those banknotes came from. So
Speaker 4: you need to clean that money to make it look
Speaker 4: like it came from legitimate business. In the UK, gangs
Speaker 4: do that by fiddling the books in legal businesses like
Speaker 4: this tanning salon. Ten minutes on a subed costs you
Speaker 4: three pounds in cash, no cards, so no electronic trail.
Speaker 4: It's quiet today. There's only been three customers wanted to
Speaker 4: use a sunbed, but that's okay because according to the
Speaker 4: business accounts, which are kept on paper, at least one
Speaker 4: hundred people came through. That sleight of hand means a
Speaker 4: salon zonner can go to a bank and pay three
Speaker 4: hundred pounds as a day's takings, making that money look
Speaker 4: as if it's legal. Of course it isn't. Only nine
Speaker 4: pounds is from real customers. The rest is from selling cocaine.
Speaker 4: But once it's in the bank, nobody can prove that.
Speaker 4: Do that five days a week, fifty two weeks a
Speaker 4: year and you can clean almost eighty thousand pounds through
Speaker 4: this one salon enough to buy a BMW or put
Speaker 4: down a deposit on a house and a nice part
Speaker 4: of the city. But the cocaine business isn't about scraping
Speaker 4: together enough cash for a house deposit. In this world,
Speaker 4: eighty grand is only spare change. The real operators they
Speaker 4: clean their money using a similar method to this subed operation,
Speaker 4: but they do it on a much bigger scale, Which
Speaker 4: brings me back to the woman who was woken by police,
Speaker 4: the person Fiona was telling you about at the start
Speaker 4: of the episode, and how I found myself going to
Speaker 4: meet her. So I'm sitting in a hotel room. It's
Speaker 4: a secret location. So often people who want to give
Speaker 4: you stories in the world of organized crime, do you
Speaker 4: want to stay anonymous? It's not unusual. However, what is
Speaker 4: unusual about this interview is who she is and what
Speaker 4: she did. We're not going to use her name and
Speaker 4: we're not going to identify her. So what you're about
Speaker 4: to hear is her words, but an actor speaking those words.
Speaker 3: In twenty nineteen, just before all this happened, I was
Speaker 3: in a really good place. I was probably at the
Speaker 3: top of my game. I just got out of a
Speaker 3: horrible relationship, moved into a beautiful home. I was self
Speaker 3: implied some a salary will theary, but on a good
Speaker 3: month it could be anywhere between four and six grand.
Speaker 3: Was exactly where I wanted it to be. I was
Speaker 3: massively into my fitness. I had a great group of friends,
Speaker 3: and I was just very very happy.
Speaker 4: I'm going to call this woman Francesca. I'd describe her
Speaker 4: as somewhat glamorous. She works in a beauty industry. I
Speaker 4: won't be any more specific than that. She's warm, friendly
Speaker 4: and bubbly. You can tell she spends a working life
Speaker 4: chatting with lots of different people and putting them at ease.
Speaker 4: This is the first time she or any of the
Speaker 4: people she got mixed up with, have publicly told their story.
Speaker 4: That story starts in late twenty nineteen and early twenty twenty,
Speaker 4: when Francesca was, as she says, where she wanted to be.
Speaker 4: They now follows a ministerial broadcast from the Prime Minister.
Speaker 5: Good evening, the coronavirus is the biggest threat this country
Speaker 5: has faced for decades, and this country is not alone.
Speaker 3: Then lockdown here and completely turn my life upside down
Speaker 3: and screwed.
Speaker 5: Me from this evening. I must give the British people
Speaker 5: a very simple instruction, you must stay at home. I
Speaker 5: am officially declaring a national emergency.
Speaker 4: Life and frankly, freedom as we know it are both
Speaker 4: going to change dramatically.
Speaker 3: The breaking news stay at home, that is the order tonight.
Speaker 3: More than three billion people in almost seventy countries and
Speaker 3: territories have been asked to stay at home.
Speaker 4: On the twenty third of March. In twenty twenty, as
Speaker 4: the COVID pandemic swept across the globe, the UK went
Speaker 4: into a national lockdown, and for those like Francesca who
Speaker 4: needed to meet people face to face and make a living,
Speaker 4: that was a problem.
Speaker 3: I was out of work, so all of my money
Speaker 3: just stopped. I skoot to the bank of mom and
Speaker 3: dad and they don't have a lot of money.
Speaker 4: What did your finances look like at that point?
Speaker 3: Absolutely dire loads of debt, not just to credit cards
Speaker 3: and whatnot, but to friends and family, which was just
Speaker 3: keeping me up at night.
Speaker 4: How much do you reckon? Roughly like total debt to friends, family, credit.
Speaker 3: Cards, probably about twenty grand. At that point, I was thinking,
Speaker 3: am I going to lose my home? Because I'd spoken
Speaker 3: to my landlord and I'd asked him if I could
Speaker 3: have a bit of a break on my rent payments,
Speaker 3: and he was just like, absolutely not. If you can't
Speaker 3: afford it, you can get out.
Speaker 4: In May of twenty twenty, COVID restrictions started to ease
Speaker 4: a little, but the beauty sector was still classed as
Speaker 4: high risk, which meant Francesca would not be allowed to
Speaker 4: work until later that summer.
Speaker 3: I met a friend of a friend and she was
Speaker 3: in a similar industry to me, so we were kind
Speaker 3: of exchanging notes and having a bit of a moan
Speaker 3: about it, and then she said, well, actually I've been
Speaker 3: giving this opportunity to work and to buy for a
Speaker 3: beauty academy. You get flown first class and you make
Speaker 3: X amount of money. And that was initially how she
Speaker 3: sold it to me, and then bit by bit it
Speaker 3: became apparent that it wasn't what she initially said.
Speaker 4: It was hand on heart. What did you think it was?
Speaker 3: My first question was is it drugs? Because I just
Speaker 3: knew that I would not smuggle drugs, But it was money.
Speaker 4: What exactly were you asked to do? I was asked to.
Speaker 3: Take suitcases full of money. I wasn't told the exact amount,
Speaker 3: but I did know that it was more than was
Speaker 3: legally allowed, and then that money would be sort of
Speaker 3: supplied with some documents so that we could declare it
Speaker 3: in Dubai.
Speaker 4: So this was the job. What Francesco had agreed to
Speaker 4: do was carry suitcases from London to Dubai, but she
Speaker 4: didn't quite know what she was getting into because inside
Speaker 4: those suitcases was millions of pounds in banknotes. This was
Speaker 4: the hard cash street profit of organized crime groups, much
Speaker 4: of it coming from cocaine. The way it worked is
Speaker 4: that Francesca would go to Heathrow Airport with another woman
Speaker 4: and check in on business class. They turn up in pairs,
Speaker 4: pretending they were going on a girl's weekend away. In return,
Speaker 4: they were paid three thousand pounds in cash. The group
Speaker 4: would later become known as a Sunshine and Lollipops gang,
Speaker 4: named after one of their WhatsApp groups. Francesca's first assignment
Speaker 4: was in the summer of twenty twenty. What were thinking
Speaker 4: in bed the night before?
Speaker 3: I had mixed emotions, scared of the thought of checking in,
Speaker 3: just overthinking every little detail of it, but also a
Speaker 3: little bit of excitement as well, because I've never flown
Speaker 3: business class before. And too experienced to buy.
Speaker 4: The day of the flight, Francesca and another woman took
Speaker 4: the train to London together. How it worked was that
Speaker 4: they would get WhatsApp messages from those higher up in
Speaker 4: the chain telling them where to go and what to do.
Speaker 3: Everybody had to meet at a Starbucks in London. I
Speaker 3: think we ended up having to wait four hours or something.
Speaker 3: The other person I was doing it with said they
Speaker 3: just do this all the time. They just changed plans
Speaker 3: for one reason or another, and you don't get much detail.
Speaker 4: The women didn't know who they were working for. All
Speaker 4: they could do was wait for instructions.
Speaker 3: And then a driver would come to collect us from
Speaker 3: the Starbucks. This very swanky car blacked out, you know,
Speaker 3: like a proper show for in a people carrier. We
Speaker 3: were getting messages telling us what to do next. They
Speaker 3: want to know exactly where you are at all times.
Speaker 3: The driver was obviously getting messed as well, so that
Speaker 3: they knew exactly where to go, and then we would
Speaker 3: go to another address to collect the cases in a
Speaker 3: really swanky part of London.
Speaker 4: Soon the driver pulled up outside a very plush building
Speaker 4: in London's West End. The can you imagine TV stars
Speaker 4: or maybe a hedge fund executive would live in.
Speaker 3: We were just sat in the car, and then the
Speaker 3: driver would get out and two people would come from
Speaker 3: the apartment or the house with the cases and put
Speaker 3: them in the back of the car.
Speaker 4: The whole time the women never left the car so
Speaker 4: couldn't see exactly what was happening or who was involved.
Speaker 3: Between them, they'd count them and say to the driver, there's,
Speaker 3: you know, this many cases, and I was like, what
Speaker 3: the fuck is going on? There was seven cases. I thought, shit,
Speaker 3: that's a lot of money.
Speaker 4: And what did the cases look like?
Speaker 3: Black hardshell, good quality, with the code on to open it,
Speaker 3: which were clearly locked. And I do remember thinking, what
Speaker 3: if they ask us to open it and we don't
Speaker 3: know the code, that's going to look pretty sous. And
Speaker 3: then the driver started driving again, and constantly you would
Speaker 3: be getting text saying where you now, Like if you're
Speaker 3: in traffic, you'd have to constantly be telling them you wereabouts.
Speaker 4: The driver, who had still not said a single word
Speaker 4: to the w drove them to Heathrow, one of the
Speaker 4: world's busiest airports, the.
Speaker 3: Closest to the airport I got. The more nervous I
Speaker 3: got they did tell us to get a little bit
Speaker 3: dressed up, just look a bit suave. So I remember
Speaker 3: making sure I had a full face of makeup on
Speaker 3: and just looking like I would be the sort of
Speaker 3: person that would fly business class. I'm not there in
Speaker 3: my you know, capatrack suit.
Speaker 4: It had been hours since Francesca had arrived in London,
Speaker 4: but finally late in the evening, throughout heath Row.
Speaker 3: We get to the airport, get the trolleys. I got three,
Speaker 3: the other person got four, and then wheel them over
Speaker 3: to the checking desk. And it's pretty quiet in the airport.
Speaker 3: There's not a lot of people there, and that's for
Speaker 3: a reason because they rushed through, as you've not got
Speaker 3: a lot of time to get onto the flight.
Speaker 4: Whoever was organizing this operation knew that the later the
Speaker 4: women arrived at the airport, especially as business class customers,
Speaker 4: they would be less likely to have their luggage checked thoroughly,
Speaker 4: and instead rushed onto the plane. Everything was set up
Speaker 4: to give the impression that these were busy, successful women
Speaker 4: running late for an expensive flight, not the kind of
Speaker 4: people who you need to ask questions. Any baggage can
Speaker 4: we take quite quick at the four weeks But in
Speaker 4: that moment where you've got the seven cases and you're
Speaker 4: picking them up one by one and putting them on
Speaker 4: the little conveyor belt that goes into the back are yeah,
Speaker 4: what were you thinking? Then?
Speaker 3: It was a million thoughts like shit, what if they
Speaker 3: opened the case? But then equally just smiling and playing
Speaker 3: this role of this fancy lady that's flying business class.
Speaker 4: It worked. Within an hour, Francesca and the other woman
Speaker 4: were walking onto the flight, turning left sitting in business
Speaker 4: class while their cases were being loaded onto the plane.
Speaker 4: The flight attendant came round offering champagne, but until the
Speaker 4: plane's wheels left the runway, there was still a chance
Speaker 4: it could all go wrong. Francesca even daydreamed about it.
Speaker 3: I remember visualizing security coming onto the flight. But once
Speaker 3: the flight let a tarmac and you're up in the
Speaker 3: air and you've got that glass of champagne in your hand,
Speaker 3: the sense of relief I cannot explain to you.
Speaker 4: Seven hours later, the plane landed in Dubai, a gleaming
Speaker 4: city of skyscrapers and extravagant spending in the United Arab Emirates.
Speaker 4: At this point, the women were sent the codes to
Speaker 4: open the suitcases again via WhatsApp. Before they could leave,
Speaker 4: they had to declare the money flagging down a customs official.
Speaker 4: Francesca was led into a room with opate glass with
Speaker 4: two officers inside, and.
Speaker 3: Then they're just like taking the money out of the
Speaker 3: case and then just took it on the table count it.
Speaker 3: They don't bat an eyelid because as soon as you
Speaker 3: see that paperwork, I mean one they must see it
Speaker 3: all the time, or two that paperwork tells them everything
Speaker 3: they need.
Speaker 4: The paperwork Francesca's referring to is what you're handed over
Speaker 4: to the customs officials. That letter said the money was
Speaker 4: for a registered business based in Dubai called Omnivest Gold Trading.
Speaker 4: That company was owned by a man called Abdullah al Fallassi.
Speaker 4: To me, it seems amazing that they didn't ask any
Speaker 4: more questions about two British women carrying millions of pounds
Speaker 4: in their suitcases. Yes, there was paperwork, but at least
Speaker 4: flag it is suspicious. Anyway, the emiralty officials simply counted
Speaker 4: it out.
Speaker 3: The first time I saw the money, I felt like
Speaker 3: I was in a film or it wasn't real. It
Speaker 3: was just so real. It was like a dream. I
Speaker 3: couldn't believe how much it was. I didn't really think
Speaker 3: it was going to be into the millions, and I thought,
Speaker 3: what the fuck have I got myself into?
Speaker 4: After being waved through, Francesca's final stop was the arrivals hall.
Speaker 3: As soon as you walked through that door, there's somebody
Speaker 3: there straight away to meet you, and obviously they know
Speaker 3: that you've got seven cases, they know exactly who you are,
Speaker 3: and they know what you look like. He then walked
Speaker 3: with you to the cars. They took all the suitcases
Speaker 3: and another car just had a driver in and that's
Speaker 3: the one we got in, and then they basically just
Speaker 3: said thank you.
Speaker 4: That thank you was the last thing Francesca heard about
Speaker 4: the money. Two women spent the next few days soaking
Speaker 4: up the sun in a five star hotel and that
Speaker 4: was it. Job done. Francaska pulled this stunt three times
Speaker 4: in total, smuggling millions of pounds worth of criminal money
Speaker 4: out of the UK, with a substantial part of that
Speaker 4: link to cocaine.
Speaker 2: So when I saw or realize the scope and depth
Speaker 2: of the information on abdelayl Felassi's phones, that was a
Speaker 2: real fall off your chair moment for me. I didn't
Speaker 2: expect it. I've never seen that before. It took hours
Speaker 2: and hours and hours to go through it all. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was surprising, challenging yet really really good moment.
Speaker 4: I'm in a small windowless room in a hotel Hefro Airport,
Speaker 4: and I'm sitting Officer Ian trueby, a senior investigating officer
Speaker 4: for the National Crime Agency. We're talking about the cash
Speaker 4: smuggling operation run by the Sunshine and Lollipop's gang. Ian's
Speaker 4: telling me about the moment he and his team got
Speaker 4: access to a phone belonging to Abdullah al Fhallase. That's
Speaker 4: the person listed as the owner of Omnibus Gold Trading,
Speaker 4: the company on the letter Francesca was given to hand
Speaker 4: to officials in Dubai back to our Phallas's phone and
Speaker 4: what Ian was seeing.
Speaker 2: And I thought, this is a treasure trove. And it
Speaker 2: just got better and better, which only why I can
Speaker 2: describe it. Everybody was pretty excited at that point because
Speaker 2: I think we'd understood, we were probably getting an understanding
Speaker 2: that we probably hadn't seen before about how this actually worked.
Speaker 4: Ian is a thoughtful character and quite unassuming. You wouldn't
Speaker 4: think to me him, but he's the man who helped
Speaker 4: bring down one of the biggest cash smuggling operations in
Speaker 4: UK history.
Speaker 2: It was my team that brought down the Sunshine and
Speaker 2: Lollipops money laundering group. This was a group of people
Speaker 2: that were recruited to carry suitcases full of cash out
Speaker 2: of the UK and take them to Dubai, a very fundamental,
Speaker 2: straightforward method of money laundering.
Speaker 4: While straightforward, the group was undeniably sophisticated. As investigation continued,
Speaker 4: Ian was able to work out smuggling operation started in
Speaker 4: November twenty nineteen, a few months before Francesca was recruited.
Speaker 4: In the summer of twenty twenty. In just over a year,
Speaker 4: the cash mules were able to make eighty three separate trips.
Speaker 4: For most of that time, things ran smoothly. It was
Speaker 4: like a business.
Speaker 2: They submitted their expense claims and then they were imbursed
Speaker 2: for their train fare, with their hotels and taxis, etc.
Speaker 2: So that is it in a nutshell.
Speaker 4: But in October twenty twenty, the first crack in that
Speaker 4: shell appeared. One of the cash mules was stopped at
Speaker 4: Heathrow Airport. Thirty year old recruitment consultant Tarba Handlon.
Speaker 2: By her own account. She was currently out of work
Speaker 2: due to COVID, nothing to suggest that she was linked
Speaker 2: to crime in any way, shape or form, had no
Speaker 2: criminal record. She was asked some standard questions, do you
Speaker 2: have any cash? She initially denied it. They decided to
Speaker 2: call her suitcases up because something didn't quite hang right.
Speaker 2: You've got five cases, you're only going for a weekend.
Speaker 2: There's only two of you.
Speaker 4: Inside one of Tarba Hanland's suitcases, officials found one point
Speaker 4: nine million pounds vacuum packed and hidden with coffee in
Speaker 4: an apparent attempt to ward off sniffer dogs.
Speaker 2: On top Corra's phone there was a copy of a
Speaker 2: letter from a company called omnive Escu Limited. Now that
Speaker 2: letter was used to provide, if you're like, some form
Speaker 2: of cover, primarily for the Dubai customs, because nothing ever
Speaker 2: got declared in the UK. And that signatory turtle letter
Speaker 2: is Abdullah al Faallesse.
Speaker 4: There's that name again, Abdullah al Fallaci. Ian's team began
Speaker 4: an investigation and we're able to establish Al Fallassi was
Speaker 4: an Emorati national who spent his time between Dubai and
Speaker 4: the UK. His wife's family had a flat in Belgravia.
Speaker 4: In London's West End. After Tara Handlan was arrested, Ian's
Speaker 4: team kept a close eye on him.
Speaker 2: We were just very fortunate. And that's the only way
Speaker 2: I can put it that mister l Fallaci decided to
Speaker 2: come to the UK, because that's what really broke the
Speaker 2: case for us. His arrest and examination of the content
Speaker 2: of his phone just revealed the hoole modus operandi.
Speaker 4: So what did you see on the phone.
Speaker 2: There were many, many, many hundreds of WhatsApp threads, so
Speaker 2: it was him booking travel tickets, him receiving images of passports,
Speaker 2: fining details of the flights, when they traveled, who they
Speaker 2: traveled with, what luggage they'd taken.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's an extraordinary treasure trove for an investigator
Speaker 4: to have as.
Speaker 2: Yeah, incredibly rare. It was a bit of an oh
Speaker 2: my god moment. There is so much data on this
Speaker 2: phone you just don't see it.
Speaker 4: And just on al Falaci himself, could you talk a
Speaker 4: bit about what he was like and his lifestyle and
Speaker 4: who he was and his background.
Speaker 2: From what I've seen, he had a very good lifestyle,
Speaker 2: expensive watches, nice places to live. He certainly had a
Speaker 2: top of arrange Mercedes at the top of my head,
Speaker 2: traveled a lot, had use of his wife's families flat
Speaker 2: in London. He's got no criminal record. He's not known
Speaker 2: to law enforcement anywhere in the world prior to this,
Speaker 2: So you know he had all of the front of
Speaker 2: a successful religion businessman.
Speaker 4: What do you know about his family?
Speaker 2: Not an awful lot. I do understand that his wife
Speaker 2: is a member of a pretty wealthy family in the UAE.
Speaker 2: One of those strange things. He did appear to have
Speaker 2: access to legitimate wealth. So what put him into this position?
Speaker 4: I do not know. A bill of al Fhaalasei was
Speaker 4: arrested in December twenty twenty one and charged with coordinating
Speaker 4: the Sunshining lollipops network. By the time it went to court,
Speaker 4: it's estimated that the group smuggled up to one hundred
Speaker 4: and ten million pounds out of the UK. That's over
Speaker 4: two hundred million Aussie dollars or nearly one hundred and
Speaker 4: forty million US dollars. Al Fallasse was considered the ring
Speaker 4: leader and admitted money laundering in July twenty twenty two,
Speaker 4: aged forty seven. He was sentenced to nine years in jail.
Speaker 4: It's difficult to know exactly how big a slice of
Speaker 4: the one hundred and ten million smuggled out of the
Speaker 4: UK was cocaine revenue, but Ian does believe that most
Speaker 4: of the money came from drug dealing.
Speaker 2: So I've got my two hundred grand from this week's
Speaker 2: drugs deals, I make contact with somebody, say I've got
Speaker 2: two hundred grand, and they will say meet my person
Speaker 2: at this location. The cash is handed over. The cash
Speaker 2: is then taken to accounting house for want of better expression,
Speaker 2: which has changed almost daily from what I can see
Speaker 2: from what we've identified. In this case, that cash is
Speaker 2: then consolidated with all the other cash that the group
Speaker 2: has collected in from a variety of criminal networks, packaged
Speaker 2: and then sent on its way. So you've got the collectors,
Speaker 2: you've got the consolidators, and then you've got the couriers
Speaker 2: and the people that have got control of the couriers.
Speaker 4: By couriers, Ian is referring to people like Franchasca. They're
Speaker 4: one part of a wider multi level operation set up
Speaker 4: to service organized crime. Think of them as the white
Speaker 4: collar part of the business. The collectors pick up cash
Speaker 4: from different criminal gangs. They take it to a central
Speaker 4: point the counting house where Itch checked. Someone somewhere is
Speaker 4: keeping the accounts so they know how much is owed
Speaker 4: to which people. So where in that operation did al
Speaker 4: Fallassi sit.
Speaker 2: There are clearly others involved who we haven't positively identified.
Speaker 2: He is near the top of the tree, but I
Speaker 2: couldn't comment that he is definitely at the top. But
Speaker 2: he is a leading light in what was going.
Speaker 4: On, a leading light, but not the big boss. Instead,
Speaker 4: think of our Fallacie as the department manager. The authorities
Speaker 4: believe that he delegated recruitment and day to day management
Speaker 4: of the cash mules to team leaders. Throughout twenty twenty one,
Speaker 4: the National Crime Agency linked several people to the smuggling
Speaker 4: network conversation gating their phones. By analyzing these, they discovered
Speaker 4: the mules as people like Francesca, would be organized into
Speaker 4: different WhatsApp groups, each with a team leader. The team
Speaker 4: leader would arrange their travel and expenses, then submit these
Speaker 4: claims to the manager Alpha Lasse. Francesca, as a low
Speaker 4: level employee, would never have dealt with what Ian calls
Speaker 4: a collector or a consolidator, or anyone else involved in
Speaker 4: the business apart from her team leader. This had one
Speaker 4: advantage in that it meant if any of the cash
Speaker 4: mules got busted, there was only so much they could
Speaker 4: tell the police. It also meant that the higher up
Speaker 4: and the business you were, the further you were from
Speaker 4: the actual drug dealing that generated the money in the
Speaker 4: first place, and which always attracts the attention of the law.
Speaker 2: The controllers, unfortunately, are not in the country where the
Speaker 2: crime that's in this cash is being committed, and in
Speaker 2: this day and age, through digital communication, you can do
Speaker 2: this from anywhere.
Speaker 4: Another aspect of the sunshine the Lollipops operation that allowed
Speaker 4: it to run smoothly was the faith they placed in
Speaker 4: each other.
Speaker 2: You know, Hollywood and TV has got us. You know,
Speaker 2: no criminal trust one another. There's all this rivalry and
Speaker 2: all this bullshit that goes on, but there was a
Speaker 2: huge element of trust just to hand these bags of
Speaker 2: cash over, and where there were shortcomings or concerns about
Speaker 2: what had been received as opposed to what was expected
Speaker 2: to be received, it was all dealt with very calmly
Speaker 2: and very professionally.
Speaker 4: And that was actually part of the operation's success. The
Speaker 4: cash mules, the people who are most likely to be arrested,
Speaker 4: were just normal previously law abiding with ordinary jobs.
Speaker 2: The last thing you want to do is when you're
Speaker 2: moving your money is draw attention to it by getting
Speaker 2: someone with a bit of forum to move it for you.
Speaker 2: I mean, that just makes perfect logical sense. And it
Speaker 2: also probably explains why they were paid so much, because
Speaker 2: you're asking people who have been criminally involved before to
Speaker 2: take a bit of a risk. So you know, three
Speaker 2: ground for two days work isn't bad, is it? And
Speaker 2: you can see the temptation, the business like approach to
Speaker 2: it all. I don't think that's the shocking thing. Is
Speaker 2: serious crime, but it's just a date jub to these people.
Speaker 3: At the time, I didn't see it like I'm robbing
Speaker 3: a post office and that little old lady that works
Speaker 3: in the post office is now terrified for the rest
Speaker 3: of her life. But I've thought about it now. I've
Speaker 3: thought about nothing else for three years. It's terrifying. I
Speaker 3: didn't even realize that my story was connected to cocaine.
Speaker 3: But you know that's how father each is.
Speaker 4: For her role as a cash meal in the Sunshine
Speaker 4: and Lollipops gang, Franchasca was rested and charged.
Speaker 3: I was suicidal At one point. I thought about taking
Speaker 3: my own life at least three times.
Speaker 4: Shit.
Speaker 3: The night before I first went into court, I was
Speaker 3: in a hotel room and I didn't have one ounce
Speaker 3: to sleep, and I got in the bath and I
Speaker 3: was drinking this glass of red wine, and I was
Speaker 3: so close to killing myself that night. I just couldn't
Speaker 3: stand just thinking about it anymore, thinking I was going
Speaker 3: to be plastered all over the papers, and that my
Speaker 3: business was going to be ruined and everything else that
Speaker 3: came with it, And.
Speaker 4: What stopped you from doing that?
Speaker 3: My son and just putting him through the hell of
Speaker 3: having to lose me. But it was the worst thing
Speaker 3: that I've ever experienced in my life.
Speaker 4: You were part of a group that smuggled one hundred
Speaker 4: million pounds out of the UK. How do you reflect
Speaker 4: on that and moving that amount of money?
Speaker 3: I am genuinely sorry. If I could turn the clock back,
Speaker 3: I definitely would.
Speaker 4: Francesca was ultimately convicted for her part in the international
Speaker 4: crime group. Samuels served jail time, while others were given
Speaker 4: suspended sentences. Earlier this year, assets seized from Abdullah Alphaalase
Speaker 4: included savings and investments in Emiralati banks, properties in the
Speaker 4: UAE cryptocurrency funds, luxury cars, as well as three rolexes
Speaker 4: and a Patech Filipe watch Alpha. Lasse has been ordered
Speaker 4: to pay nearly three and a half million pounds to
Speaker 4: the British courts. That's the amount authorities think he personally
Speaker 4: benefited from the scheme. But it's just a tiny slice
Speaker 4: of the smuggling operation he helped orchestrate.
Speaker 2: We can literally just account for the cash that we seized.
Speaker 2: We got one point nine one point four and four hundred.
Speaker 2: What does it add up to It's part a five million.
Speaker 4: What do you make of the fact that so much
Speaker 4: money was going through the customs office at Dubai? Wasn't
Speaker 4: it were the customs office is of any suspicion that
Speaker 4: they were in on it or is it just that
Speaker 4: they're used to seeing that amount of money move through?
Speaker 2: The cash declaration rules in the UE slash Dubai are
Speaker 2: different to the UK and Europe. You have to declare
Speaker 2: it otherwise there is a penalty. But it does state
Speaker 2: clearly on their declaration form the data is captured for
Speaker 2: statistical purposes. Now I don't know why that wouldn't necessarily
Speaker 2: generate some kind of investigation, but it doesn't, and it hasn't,
Speaker 2: so that's not something I can really comment on.
Speaker 4: I asked authorities in the UAE why the eighty three
Speaker 4: trips made by the Sunshine and Lollipops gang didn't raise
Speaker 4: any suspicions. They didn't get back to me on that
Speaker 4: specific point. However, an official did tell me the UAE
Speaker 4: takes its role in protecting the integrity of the global
Speaker 4: financial system extremely seriously. They also added they work closely
Speaker 4: with international partners to disrupt and deter all forms of
Speaker 4: illicit finance. When the money obviously goes off in the
Speaker 4: suitcases and it leaves Dubai airport, where does it go
Speaker 4: after that?
Speaker 2: We haven't got a lot of information about that, but
Speaker 2: it does appear that an element of it was changed
Speaker 2: into dereham so the local currency. A lot of it
Speaker 2: was turned into physical dirhams, and then it was used
Speaker 2: for something or it went somewhere else. I don't know.
Speaker 2: We haven't got beyond that next stage.
Speaker 4: So what is the next stage? All we have so
Speaker 4: far is Abdullah al Falas's name on a letter handed
Speaker 4: to the cash mules saying the money they were carrying
Speaker 4: was for Dubai based business called Omnives Gold trading and
Speaker 4: if that money was drug money as Ian suspects. I
Speaker 4: only really have one option to go to Dubai myself.
Speaker 4: So I'm knocking on a door. It's got no sign whatsoever. Hi.
Speaker 4: So to show you we're looking for omnives the goal
Speaker 4: into trading and investigate what happened to the rest of
Speaker 4: that one hundred and ten pounds.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm just opening that art.
Speaker 4: He looks a lot younger than his police mug shot. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but that is Abdullah al Falasse.
Speaker 1: It's clearly him.
Speaker 4: It's clearly him. That's all next time on Cocaine Inc.
Speaker 1: Cocaine Inc. Is a joint investigation from The Times, The
Speaker 1: Sunday Times and News Corp Australia. The reporters are David Collins,
Speaker 1: Stephen Drill and me Fiona Hamilton. The series is produced
Speaker 1: by Sam Chanterassak. The executive producers are Will Row and
Speaker 1: Dan Box. Audio production and editing is by Jasper Leak,
Speaker 1: with original music by Tom Burchill. Additional production support on
Speaker 1: this episode from Sharonhissein and Francesca was voiced by Liz
Speaker 1: Fletcher and if you want to get in touch with
Speaker 1: any questions or thoughts on the series Email Cocaine Inc.
Speaker 1: At the time, dot co, dot uk, h