Two people from near Ripon have been found guilty of helping to smuggle more than £100 million from the UK to Dubai following a major national investigation.
Jonathan Johnson, 54, and Jo-Emma Larvin, 43, a model and former girlfriend of boxer Joe Calzaghe, were found guilty yesterday following a trial at Isleworth Crown Court.
The pair, both of Grantley near Ripon, were charged with removal of cash from England and Wales which they knew or suspected was acquired through criminal conduct.
Both acted as couriers and were convicted alongside Beatrice Auty, 26, from London and Amy Harrison, 27, from Worcester Park in Surrey.
An investigation led by the National Crime Agency has so far seen eleven of the couriers in the network convicted.
£104 million smuggled to Dubai
The network smuggled more than £104 million from the UK to Dubai during 83 separate trips between November 2019 and October 2020, overseen by ringleader Abdullah Alfalsi, 47, who was jailed for more than nine years in July last year.
The couriers, who were paid around £3,000 for each trip and would be booked on business class flights due to the extra luggage allowance, communicated on a Whatsapp group entitled ’Sunshine and lollipops’.
Larvin made two trips to Dubai in August and September 2020.
One trip was with Amy Harrison 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.
Larvin and Johnson were arrested at Manchester Airport in March 2022.
The network collected cash from criminal groups around the UK, which was believed to be the profits of drug dealing, and took it to counting houses, usually rented apartments in central London.
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The money was then vacuum-packed and separated into suitcases which would typically each contain around £500,000, weighing around 40 kilos. They were sprayed with coffee or air fresheners in an effort to prevent them being found by Border Force detection dogs.
Ian Truby, senior investigating officer at the National Crime Agency, 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.”
Larvin and Johnson will be sentenced later alongside five other couriers who have pleaded guilty at previous hearings.
