Ripon couple helped smuggle £100 million from UK to Dubai

Jonathan Johnson, 55, and Jo Emma Larvin, 44, were part of a network of couriers that laundered the money by moving it from the UK to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has revealed.

They denied charges relating to their activity, but were convicted alongside two other couriers at the end of a trial at Isleworth Crown Court. They will be sentenced later with five other people who had been convicted earlier.

The court heard in total the network smuggled more than £104 million 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.

Criminal cash smuggler Jo Emma Larvin of Ripon, Pic from National Crime Agency

Larvin made two trips to Dubai in August and September 2020. One of them was with another courier Amy Harrison when they took seven cases between them containing £2.2 million, the other with her partner Johnson, when they took eight suitcases containing £2.8 million.

Larvin - a former glamour model who used to go out with Welsh boxing legend Joe Calzaghe - and Johnson, of Grantley, Ripon, were arrested at Manchester Airport in March 2022.

Criminal cash smuggler Jonathan Johnson of Ripon Pic from National Crime Agency

Harrison made three trips between July and September 2020, taking 15 suitcases containing around £6m.

Harrison, 27, from Worcester Park in Surrey, was convicted of her part in the network alongside the North Yorkshire couple, as was Beatrice Auty, 26, from London.

Criminal cash smuggler Beatrice Auty. Pic from National Crime Agency

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.

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.

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’.

NCA senior investigating officer Ian Truby 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.”

Adrian Searle, Director of the National Economic Crime Centre in the NCA, said:“The laundering of such vast quantities of cash around the globe enables organised criminals and corrupt elites to clean or hide their ill-gotten gains.

“Cash smugglers typically work on behalf of international controller networks, who move the finances of the international drug trade, people traffickers, fraudsters and other criminal groups, making the source of the money difficult to trace.

“The criminality this enables costs the UK billions every year, causes misery and ruins lives across the world.

“This case demonstrates the continued commitment by the NCA to crackdown on money laundering and close the vulnerabilities being exploited.”