Small ‘dirty cash’ fortune of £5.1m found in Fulham flat – stashed under beds
A small fortune of £5.1m in “dirty cash” was found in a Fulham flat – stashed under beds, in cupboards and strewn on the floor, police have said today.
Three money launderers are facing prison following the Met police’s largest single cash seizure last summer.
Police said it was left across the flat because the gang “didn’t know what to do with it”, after lockdown stopped it from leaving the country.
Undercover officers caught one culprit, Ruslan Shamsutdinov, as he struggled lifting heavy bags into a car outside the Porteus Apartments last June.
The cash was then linked to Russian middleman Sergejs Auzins, who worked for gun and drugs gangs across the capital.
10 gangs tried to ‘clean’ the money before it was discovered, but to no avail, Harrow crown court heard.
Detective Superintendent Jason Prins said his team accidentally stumbled across the Fulham flat during another long-running drugs and arms operation.
“This is the largest ever single cash seizure by the Met and I believe one of the largest ever nationally,” Prins said.
“In the flat, there was money everywhere you went — under the beds, in cupboards and on the floor. They couldn’t even hide it. It was a money laundering hub for a number of crime groups.”
A further €39,000 and £8,000 was discovered at Shamsutdinov’s Hackney home on Glenister Road.
Detectives found their accomplice, Serwan Ahmadi, five weeks later as he handed over a bag to a fourth suspect in north London.
Met specialist crime officers arrested Ahmadi in Edmonton, on Victoria Road, along with £59,980 – a search of his home in the area then found a further £198,600.
“Covid had really exacerbated their problem of how to get rid of money,” Prins coninuted, as the next day, when Auzins was detained at his house in Rochester, another £14,435 was found.
After pleading guilty last year, Auzins, Shamsutdinov and Ahmadi will be sentenced on Friday.
The seized cash, a total of £5.4m, will eventually fund Met and Home Office operations to tackle violent crime.