Reported by Max Kendix

(Excerpt shared below. To read full report, go to: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/chinese-state-linked-gangs-money-laundering-uk-vtv3f9krf)

Chinese state-linked criminal gangs are using international students in Britain to launder hundreds of millions of pounds in cash, research claims. 

The Chinese groups collect cash from street-level drug dealers and use a network of money mules to deposit it in smaller amounts into bank accounts the gangs control.

The National Crime Agency has listed Chinaas a “priority jurisdiction” for money laundering in the UK on behalf of organised crime groups, and this year said “the already high threat” to the UK “continues to grow”.

Research by the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) suggests that the Chinese state has been providing “tacit support” for the criminal gangs, adding that “there must be something about the relationship … that is mutually beneficial”.

China restricts citizens from transferring any more than around £38,000 out of the country each year, for limited purposes like studying or travelling. Chinese groups exploit this by collecting cash from various British criminals and then selling the British currency to Chinese nationals in the UK.

They then pay the equivalent amount in Chinese currency to a bank account controlled by the group, which charges the “money mules” fees as high as 30 per cent. 

Finally, the Chinese group then makes an equivalent value of the cash laundered available to the original British-based criminals. The high fees for the mules mean that this service is often offered for free to criminals in the UK, undercutting other organised money-laundering operations.

Britain is thought to be a leading market for such money laundering owing to the high number of Chinese students in British higher education — a total of almost 150,000 in the 2023-24 academic year, the second-largest country of origin of overseas students.