{"slug": "uk-backs-money-laundering-crackdown-with-676m-and-500-new-officers", "title": "UK Backs Money Laundering Crackdown With $676M and 500 New Officers", "summary": "The UK Home Office said Tuesday it will recruit 500 officers and commit £500 million ($676 million) over three years from the economic crime levy to a new Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy. The officers will be spread across police forces, the National Crime Agency and the Crown Prosecution Service, building on Operation Destabilise, which the NCA says has led to 119 suspected launderers arrested and more than £25 million seized in cash and crypto in under a year. The NCA estimates more than £100 billion is laundered through the UK or British corporate structures annually, a threat the Home Office says has grown from the rise of fintech, crypto and AI.", "body_md": "#### In brief\n\n- Five hundred officers will be recruited across police forces, the National Crime Agency and the Crown Prosecution Service.\n- The £500 million comes from the economic crime levy and runs over three years.\n- It will build upon Operation Destabilise, the case against Russian cash-to-crypto networks.\n\nBritain will recruit 500 officers to trace and seize criminal money, backed by £500 million over three years, the Home Office said on Tuesday.\n\nThe money funds a new Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy and comes from the economic crime levy on regulated firms. Officers will be spread across police forces, the National Crime Agency and the Crown Prosecution Service.\n\nThe NCA reckons more than £100 billion is laundered through the UK or British corporate structures each year, and the threat \"has grown in recent years from the rise of fintech, crypto and AI,\" the Home Office said.\n\nThe officers will build on Operation Destabilise, the investigation into Russian-speaking networks that convert street cash into crypto for organised crime groups, the Home Office said. The NCA plans a fresh campaign of arrests and cash seizures against networks it says enable ransomware groups, hostile states and the class A drugs trade. It puts the operation's tally so far at 119 suspected launderers arrested and more than £25 million seized in cash and crypto in under a year.\n\n## **A growing priority**\n\nThe NCA asked for this in public last week. Its economic crime centre said in its annual report that criminals were making \"innovative use of crypto asset products to evade detection and move illicit value at scale,\" and that it wanted to expand the Destabilise model to other networks while building \"a more proactive and intelligence-led crypto capability.\" Cryptoassets rank third on the nine economic crime priorities it agreed with the Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority.\n\nSal Melki, the NCA's deputy director for economic crime, said that fighting financial crime \"has become more complex as criminals embrace new technologies,\" and that the investment would fund an “innovative financial intelligence service for the UK\" and more capacity to target criminals’ financial architecture.\n\nThe government put its returns for the past year at almost £350 million stripped from criminals, more than £1 billion denied, £26 million returned to victims and almost 4,000 money laundering convictions.\n\nBritish agencies have leaned on crypto firms before. Operation Atlantic, run with the US Secret Service, identified 20,000 approval-phishing victims and froze $12 million with Coinbase, Binance, Kraken and Tether in a week-long sprint at NCA headquarters in March.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/uk-backs-money-laundering-crackdown-with-676m-and-500-new-officers", "canonical_source": "https://cryptonews.net/news/security/33449325/", "published_at": "2026-09-16 12:41:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-16 13:12:40.636633+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy"], "entities": ["Home Office", "National Crime Agency", "Crown Prosecution Service", "Operation Destabilise", "Sal Melki", "Financial Conduct Authority", "Coinbase", "Tether"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/uk-backs-money-laundering-crackdown-with-676m-and-500-new-officers", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/uk-backs-money-laundering-crackdown-with-676m-and-500-new-officers.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/uk-backs-money-laundering-crackdown-with-676m-and-500-new-officers.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/uk-backs-money-laundering-crackdown-with-676m-and-500-new-officers.jsonld"}}