Russian money-laundering network used by Kinahan cartel has been dismantled
Bundles of banknotes seized by Britain's National Crime Agency as it and other international agencies brought down a multibillion-dollar money laundering network run by two Russian millionaires. Picture: National Crime Agency/PA
The Kinahan cartel and other Irish organised crime groups used the money-laundering services of sprawling multi-billion-dollar Russian criminal networks that have now been hit by British and US agencies, assisted by gardaí.
The agencies said the two networks — Smart and TGR — also assisted Russian clients targeted by sanctions linked to the war in Ukraine and helped to fund Russian espionage operations.
The British National Crime Agency (NCA) led the operation together with powerful US asset, financial crime, and drug agencies.
In a statement, the NCA said: “An international NCA-led investigation — Operation Destabilise — has exposed and disrupted Russian money-laundering networks supporting serious and organised crime around the world, spanning from the streets of the UK to the Middle East, Russia, and South America.”
It said two Russian-speaking networks, Smart and TGR, were at the heart of the criminal enterprise.
The statement added: “As well as enabling UK-based criminals, Smart and TGR used their global reach to launder money for transnational crime groups such as the Kinahans.
Those measures, announced in Dublin in April 2022, sanctioned seven senior members of the cartel, including leaders Daniel Kinahan, his brother Christopher, and their father, and cartel founder, Christy Sr.
The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) offered awards of up to $5m for information leading to their arrest.
The NCA statement said an “extensive cash-courier network” linked to Smart operated across the UK and Europe, including Ireland. The network was led by Russian boss Semen Kuksov, who coordinated with one of the Smart leaders.
“One courier linked to Kuksov’s network, Igor Logvinov, was arrested by An Garda Síochána in Ireland and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment,” the NCA statement said.
Logvinov was spotted by the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (DOCB) at a “cash handover” at a south Dublin petrol station in July 2023.
On foot of a court warrant, they searched the home where Logvinov was staying and found €57,000 in cash, along with bagging and a number of digital devices.
The Lithuanian national had a Russian visa and was a British resident.
Gardaí believe Logvinov was a “courier for a Russian crew” and he was offering the money-laundering services to various gangs.
Sources said the amount found was only the “tip of the iceberg” and it “could as easily have been €5m” as it depended on timing.
In a Garda statement, Detective Chief Superintendent Séamus Boland, head of DOCB, said: “An Garda Síochána collaborated with the National Crime Agency in targeting the Irish nexus of this Russian money-laundering network, resulting in a sentence of three years’ imprisonment being imposed on Igor Logvinov during July 2023.
The NCA said the Russian networks operated a complex scheme, where they “collect funds in one country and make the equivalent value available in another”.
It said this is often done by swapping cryptocurrency for cash: “After being paid in crypto in exchange for cash, criminal gangs would use the virtual currency to reinvest in their illicit business, buying more drugs or firearms without the need to move any physical money across borders.”
Ofac said it is sanctioning five people and four entities linked to TGR, which it said is a “sprawling international network”.
