Police seize an extra $100m from alleged money laundering syndicate Long River
The Long River syndicate has been accused of being one of Australia’s most sophisticated money launderers. Now police have seized another $100m of allegedly dodgy cash and assets.
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An extra $100 million worth of cash and assets has been seized from the Long River syndicate, which was intercepted in one of the nation’s largest ever money laundering stings.
The Australian Federal Police will reveal on Tuesday that it has netted the extra funds after it smashed the sophisticated network, which allegedly laundered $229 million of criminals’ funds.
More than $160 million – up from just over $50 million – has been seized from seven alleged ringleaders of the syndicate, who are due back in court in March.
The haul includes 14 luxury properties in Victoria, Queensland, and Western Australia, top of the range Mercedes Benz vehicles worth $400,000 and Rolex watches worth $94,000.
Police have also restrained 51 bank accounts and shares as part of Operation Avarus-Nightwolf.
The group arrested in late October was operating the Changjiang Currency Exchange, which had 12 shopfronts across Australia, including one on the same street as AFP headquarters in Sydney.
The new details emerged as the total assets restrained by the AFP’s Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce hit more than $1 billion in four years.
AFP Head of the CACT Stefan Jerga said police were hitting alleged criminals in their hip pocket.
“Our highly-skilled and co-located, Australia-wide teams of police, financial investigators, forensic accountants, litigators, cryptocurrency experts, and partner agency specialists, will continue to be relentless in pursuing the assets and wealth of those who attempt to operate outside of the law,’’ Mr Jerga said.
“The AFP will not allow criminals to cash in on crime. We will continue to target and disrupt their illicit operations, including by restraining and confiscating criminal assets.”
AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw had set a target in 2019 of $600 million of assets to be seized in four years.
Taking cash off criminals reduces their ability to fund drug shipments and other criminal activity immediately compared with court processes that can take years.
The AFP worked with financial watchdog AUSTRAC, which monitors every transaction in Australia of more than $10,000, to investigate the money laundering scheme.
“AUSTRAC intelligence is a vital piece of the puzzle in identifying the assets purchased by criminals using the proceeds of crime,” AUSTRAC Deputy CEO Intelligence, Dr John Moss said.
The $1 billion of assets restrained was part of more than $60 billion turned over by organised crime each year in Australia.
Almost $50 million was seized as part of Operation Fuji, which was linked to Melbourne crime figure George Marrogi.
The convicted killer was sentenced to another 22 years jail in February this year over drug shipments linked to the assets that were restrained.
Marrogi had been organising drug deals from inside the high security Barwon Prison using a lawyer’s phone number diverted to an associate.
stephen.drill@news.com.au
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