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Officers honoured for taking down crime gang

Thursday, 17 October 2024 14:28

By Gareth Joy X @lookoutwales2

Two officers have been honoured for their work in cracking one of the biggest money laundering cases in Welsh history.

Six members of an organised crime gang were jailed for selling illegal tobacco and nitrous oxide.from a number of shop fronts, including three in Barry.

Eleven people were convicted for their roles in a business fraud which led to over £1.8 million being laundered between September 2013 and February 2022.

An eighteen-month investigation involving police and Shared Regulatory Services led to the seizure of over £600,000 of illegal tobacco, along with £12,500 worth of nitrous oxide cannisters during an undercover monitoring operation.

The judge stated that the public were sold sub-standard products and there were vulnerable victims, as individual cigarettes were sold to underage children, and the selling of nitrous oxide was potentially dangerous as it could be misused.

The ringleader, Ali Khaleel Hassan Aldarawish from Roath, was jailed for seven years - while Farhard Sofizadeh, from Barry High Street, was sentenced to three years.

Among the other gang members, Aiysha Bibi, also from Barry High Street, was given a two-year suspended sentence.

At the Team SWP awards in Swansea on Thursday night, Sergeant Jake Rollnick and trading standards officer Mandy Flood, won the Problem Solving in Partnership category for leading their respective teams in the case.

Judges said it was an "excellent example of how two agencies came together to address a problem that was negatively affecting local communities."

Following the conclusion of the case in June, Sgt Rollnick said: "Officers from Cardiff and Vale Neighbourhood Policeing Teams worked closely alongside the Shared Regulatory Services and other government agencies in bringing these offenders to justice over a period of 18 months."

"It consisted of multiple warrants and intervention and just goes to show what we can achieve in partnership."

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