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Five hundred new officers are being recruited to track dirty money, disrupt organised crime networks and seize criminal assets, the Home Office and HM Treasury announced today. The recruits will be deployed across police forces, the National Crime Agency and the Crown Prosecution Service, following the money behind serious and organised crime, including Russian and other international money laundering networks.
The expansion is backed by £500 million of investment over three years, funded through the economic crime levy, and forms part of a new Anti Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy setting out how the UK plans to make it harder for criminals to hide, move or profit from crime.
At a glance
- Five hundred new officers will be recruited across police forces, the NCA and the CPS to target money laundering and organised crime.
- The recruitment drive is backed by £500 million of investment over three years, funded through the economic crime levy.
- Almost £350 million was stripped from criminals and over £1 billion denied to them in the past year, with nearly 4,000 money laundering convictions secured.
- The NCA estimates more than £100 billion is laundered through the UK or UK corporate structures every year.
- The strategy builds on Operation Destabilise, which saw 119 suspected money launderers arrested and over £25 million in cash and crypto seized in under a year.
Why the Government Is Putting 500 More Officers on the Trail of Dirty Money
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the new officers would go after "the criminal bosses behind organised crime and stripping them of the funds they use to fuel drug trafficking, people smuggling and other serious crime." The government argues that removing the profits from crime, rather than only prosecuting individual offenders, does more to break the hold organised networks have over communities and high streets.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis framed the expansion as a shift in emphasis for law enforcement. "The fight against organised crime does not stop at arresting offenders," he said. "We must also go after the dirty money that fuels their operations by strengthening our ability to trace, seize and recover criminal assets." Economic Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby KC MP added that the levy funding was designed to make "Britain a harder place for criminals to launder money," with recovered funds redirected to bolster law enforcement further.
The Scale of the Problem, More Than £100 Billion Laundered Through the UK Each Year
The announcement is underpinned by figures the NCA says illustrate the size of the challenge. The agency estimates more than £100 billion is laundered through the UK or UK corporate structures annually, as criminals use money laundering networks to conceal profits from drug trafficking, fraud, people smuggling and corruption. The same channels, the government says, are also exploited by hostile states and elites seeking to move illicit wealth through the international financial system, with the threat compounded in recent years by the rise of fintech, cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence.
Against that backdrop, the government points to what it calls a year of progress. Almost £350 million was stripped from criminals and more than £1 billion denied to them over twelve months, with £26 million returned to victims, 2,700 illicit finance operations disrupted, and convictions for money laundering rising to almost 4,000. Around £1 million was also stripped from people smugglers and immigration offenders during the same period, as part of the wider effort against illegal migration.
The new officers will build on the NCA's Operation Destabilise, which has been disrupting Russian money laundering networks operating across the UK and overseas. Sal Melki, the NCA's Deputy Director for Economic Crime, said the operation's foundations would help the agency "build an innovative financial intelligence service for the UK" and increase its capacity to "pursue them across borders, seize their criminal wealth and remove them from our businesses, institutions and high streets." Over the course of Operation Destabilise, 119 suspected money launderers were arrested and more than £25 million in cash and crypto was seized in under twelve months.
The Serious Fraud Office is also involved in asset recovery under the new strategy. Its director, Graham McNulty, said the SFO had secured £15.4 million through judicial outcomes since April 2026, adding that the agency was "playing its part in strengthening international asset recovery and supporting a review of money laundering prosecutions."
How the Strategy Links to the Crackdown on Dodgy High Street Shops
The new investigators will also support the government's existing High Street Organised Crime Unit, which targets shops used as fronts for criminal activity such as illicit tobacco sales or unlicensed vape and barber shops. Ed Woodall, chief executive of the Association of Convenience Stores, welcomed the move, saying "dodgy shops that act as a front for organised crime have no place on our high streets," and that more enforcement against criminal assets would "help shut down these operations, disrupt the networks behind them, and make it harder for criminals to profit from exploiting local communities." The FCA's Steve Smart said the strategy represented "a whole system effort" that was "the only way we can crack down on organised crime and combat threats to national security and economic stability."
Key Takeaways
- Five hundred new officers will be deployed across the police, NCA and CPS under a £500 million, three year Anti Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy funded by the economic crime levy.
- The NCA estimates more than £100 billion is laundered through the UK or UK corporate structures each year, a scale the strategy is designed to confront.
- Almost £350 million was stripped from criminals and nearly 4,000 money laundering convictions were secured in the past twelve months.
- Operation Destabilise, targeting Russian money laundering networks, led to 119 arrests and over £25 million in cash and crypto seizures in under a year.
- The new officers will also support the existing High Street Organised Crime Unit, which targets shops used as fronts for organised crime.
Sources & Further Reading
- GOV.UK - Hundreds of new officers to hunt down dirty money networks Archived copy (OGL): archived page