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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchThe UK National Crime Agency (NCA) says its Operation DESTABILISE investigation uncovered Russian-speaking money-laundering networks that connected criminal cash in UK communities with cryptocurrency conversions, cross-border payments, cybercrime, sanctions evasion and Russian state-linked activity. The agency named the networks Smart and TGR in December 2024. Its findings describe alleged activity and intelligence assessments, not a court judgment that every named person or transaction was criminal.
What Operation DESTABILISE investigated
DESTABILISE is an NCA-led, multi-country investigation into professional money-laundering networks—not a case against cryptocurrency as a product or a single exchange. In its 4 December 2024 announcement, the NCA identified two networks, Smart and TGR, and said their combined reach extended across more than 30 countries.
The NCA said the networks served a range of clients, including transnational criminal groups, Russian elites, cybercriminals and hostile state-linked entities. It described links to drug and firearms crime, cybercrime and ransomware, sanctions evasion, and espionage-related funding. Those are the agency’s investigative findings and assessments; arrests, sanctions and intelligence judgments should not be confused with convictions.
How the cash-to-crypto system worked
According to the NCA, the networks could arrange for money collected in one country to be matched by equivalent value elsewhere. Street-level cash handovers were followed, investigators said, by cryptocurrency movements of corresponding value. In this model, the physical cash and the crypto need not cross the same border: local collectors provide cash, while other participants make value available in another location. The NCA said criminal groups could then reinvest cryptocurrency in illicit activity without transporting physical cash internationally.
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The NCA’s 21 November 2025 account said couriers collected cash linked to drugs, firearms and organised immigration crime and converted it into cryptocurrency. It reported that launderers working for the network operated in at least 28 UK towns and cities.
The agency also gave examples of case-specific sums: it said one London-based courier laundered £15 million in criminal cash, while another courier network laundered more than £12 million in the UK over two and a half months. These are individual case figures, not totals for the entire operation. The NCA further said that in March 2022, £2 million was moved into the UK for a Russian client, masking the funds’ source and bypassing know-your-customer checks to purchase property.
What the NCA says about ransomware and cybercrime
The NCA said Smart leader Ekaterina Zhdanova laundered more than $2.3 million in suspected Ryuk ransomware ransoms in 2021. It assessed that Ryuk had extorted at least £27 million from 149 UK victims and cautioned that the true impact could be higher. These figures are the agency’s account and assessment, not a complete independently established measure of Ryuk’s global activity.
The NCA’s National Strategic Assessment 2026 says Russian-speaking networks broker transactions overseas and direct coordinators to collect, consolidate and convert criminal cash into cryptocurrency. It assesses that networks have used access to sanctioned crypto exchanges and high-impact Russian cybercrime groups. The assessment also says enforcement action against some exchanges and currencies likely displaced activity to platforms in Russia or Russia-aligned countries. This is an intelligence judgment about activity and displacement; it does not establish that every platform or user committed an offence.
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The NCA identified Smart as led by Ekaterina Zhdanova, working with Khadzi-Murat Magomedov and Nikita Krasnov. It named TGR senior figures as George Rossi, Elena Chirkinyan and Andrejs Bradens, also known as Andrejs Carenoks. The NCA’s November 2025 release said all six senior members had been sanctioned by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control in December 2024. Sanctions are restrictive measures, not criminal convictions. That release also said Zhdanova was in pre-trial detention in France at that time; detention status can change.
What the Kyrgyzstan bank connection adds
In November 2025, the NCA described a connection between TGR-linked interests and Keremet Bank in Kyrgyzstan. It said Altair Holding SA, which it linked to TGR head George Rossi, acquired a 75% stake in the bank on 25 December 2024. The agency said Altair was sanctioned by the UK in August 2025 and that Keremet facilitated cross-border payments for Promsvyazbank, a Russian state-owned bank, supporting companies involved in Russia’s military industrial base. This is the NCA’s reported account of the ownership and payment links, not a separately stated court finding.
The same release discussed A7, a company of Ilan Shor that the NCA said was sanctioned by the UK and EU. A7 and Promsvyazbank announced the A7A5 token, promoted as a rouble-backed stablecoin. The NCA assessed that networks linked to A7 were likely designed to enable cross-border payments that circumvent sanctions. That assessment should be attributed to the agency; the existence of a token or a payment channel alone does not establish that a particular transaction breached sanctions.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Arrests and seizures: dated operation snapshots
The totals rose as the investigation developed. Each figure below reflects the publication and scope stated by the NCA; they should not be combined into one undated operation total.
| Publication | What the NCA reported |
|---|---|
| 4 December 2024 announcement | 84 arrests and more than £20 million seized in cash and cryptocurrency. |
| NCA Annual Report and Accounts 2024–2025 | More than 84 arrests and over £20 million seized, recording an earlier operation total. |
| 21 November 2025 announcement | 128 arrests and more than £25 million seized in cash and cryptocurrency in the UK; separately, $24 million and more than €2.6 million seized overseas. |
| National Strategic Assessment 2026 | 129 arrests and more than £25 million seized in cash and cryptocurrency in the UK, with additional overseas seizures noted. |
In December 2024, NCA Director General of Operations Rob Jones called the operation’s networks “billion-dollar” and said they operated in a way previously unknown to international law enforcement or regulators. That characterization is the NCA’s description of the investigation’s significance.
Why the investigation matters to the wider financial system
The NCA’s account traces a chain from cash generated by crime in UK communities, through couriers and crypto conversions, to cross-border transfers and, in its later reporting, a bank and payment links connected to sanctions concerns. The significance is not that cryptocurrency use is inherently illicit: the agency describes a set of networks using cash, crypto, intermediaries, financial institutions and other channels to move value.
The NCA’s November 2025 release framed DESTABILISE as spanning street cash collection through to bank acquisition and global sanctions breaches. The investigation’s reported totals show continuing enforcement activity, while the 2026 assessment’s account of displacement indicates that action against some services may shift activity rather than end it. The assessment is an intelligence view of the threat, not a guarantee that every suspected network or transaction has been identified.
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