The Narcos next door: How the Kinahan cartel and the Kremlin used huge money laundering network based in ordinary British homes to trade blood money for cryptocurrency in scheme headed by glamorous socialite

The busting of a multibillion-pound Russian money laundering operation with tentacles reaching around the UK and across the world is a major coup for British police. 

The National Crime Agency has described the laundromat as stretching ‘from McMafia, through to Narcos, through to le Carré’ and involving everyone from drug cartels and elite cybercriminals to Russian oligarchs and even the Kremlin. 

The global syndicate, headed by glamorous Russian socialite and influencer Ekaterina Zhdanova and Russian-born Ukrainian businessman George Rossi, swapped cash from criminals in one country – like the UK – for cyber-currency extorted by Russian hackers.

Criminal gangs would use the virtual currency – which is far harder for authorities to trace – to reinvest in their illicit businesses without the need to move physical money across borders.

This system allowed drug dealers in the UK to swap dirty money for cryptocurrency which could then be used to buy drugs from South American gangsters. 

The NCA said the network was exploited by clients including the Kinahan cartel – one of the world’s most notorious international crime groups linked to numerous contract killings – and the Russian state to pay spies abroad and journalists at the TV network RT.

But it finally started to unravel when the Metropolitan Police stopped a courier employed by the network and found £250,000 in cash stashed in his car.

This revelation allowed the NCA and their international partners to penetrate the secretive network and expose those involved – many of whom are now in jail. Below, MailOnline provides a ‘who’s who’ of the huge illicit operation –   

THE BOSSES

Posing as a glamorous Russian socialite and a legitimate businesswoman, international investigators have admitted Ekaterina Zhdanova is ‘not your typical’ crypto laundering kingpin.

Zhdanova ran Smart, a Moscow-based cryptocurrency network, which, along with another called TGR – managed by her fellow kingpin Georgy Rossi – underpinned the whole money-laundering system.

Zhdanova, who had a career in financial services in Russia and has graced the covers of numerous business magazines, is now in custody in France, but the whereabouts of Rossi, who reportedly has a base in London, are unknown.

In her role as boss as one half of the money laundering network, Zhdanova is said to have exploited a vast network of contacts in Moscow during her career in financial services.

In July 2016, Zhdanova was establishing herself as a socialite whose successful business ventures led to her being splashed across the front cover of a Russian fashion and culture magazine.

Partying with Russia’s rich and famous, Zhdanova had entered an exclusive social circle which was a far cry from her humble upbringing in a Siberian town.

But her web of lies soon appeared to unravel after she started taking advantage of her fame by posting on social media about buying ‘huge volumes’ of cryptocurrency.

In 2023, her luxurious lifestyle, posing with expensive watches and partying with pop stars, came crashing down as the US government sanctioned her for her alleged role in a crypto laundering operation used by Russian oligarchs and ransomware gangs.

But claims about the full scale of her involvement in international organised crime only came to light yesterday after the NCA published the full details of their years-long operation.  

Both Zhdanova and Rossi are thought to have made millions by taking commissions of about 3 per cent for transactions totalling billions. 

Sal Melki, the head of illicit finance at the NCA, led the sting dubbed ‘Operation Destabilise’. 

He described both Zhdanova and Rossi as ‘interesting characters in their own right’ and admitted Zhdanova was ‘not your typical’ organised crime boss but someone who ‘presents herself as a legitimate business person’.

THE LIEUTENANTS 

Given the vast scale of their operation, Zhdanova and Rossi relied on a series of associates to move and launder money. 

These included Elena Chirkinyan, who was described as Rossi’s ‘direct subordinate’ in a document published by the US Department of the Treasury, which helped break up the network. 

Chirkinyan, a Russian national, is described as the key decision maker within TGR Group, who had senior roles in a number of businesses it used to launder money. 

In 2023, Chirkinyan was allegedly involved in transferring funds out of Russia, which officials believe was most likely to support the activities of the sanctioned Russian state media channel RT, formerly Russia today.

It is said that Chirkinyan – who used the moniker @monalisa7 – also helped to hide the source of Russian funds that were used to buy property in the UK. 

Another senior figure serving under Rossi in the TGR side of the operation was Latvian national Andrejs Bradens. 

Bradens owned a UK-based company known as TGR Corporate Concierge LTD, which is registered to a five-storey townhouse in the plush West London neighbourhood of Fitzrovia. 

Despite this, there is no suggestion anyone inside the building – which houses an art company – knew anything about its apparent links to international money laundering.

More than a dozen other companies are also registered to the same address for correspondence purposes, and it’s unlikely any members of the organised crime ring ever visited it.

When contacted by MailOnline over the intercom, residents of the building said they had ‘no idea’ what TGR Corporate Concierge was or why it is registered at the same address.

Among those reporting to Zhdanova on the Smart side of the criminal network included Khadzi-Murat Dalgatovich Magomedov, a Russian who allegedly helped her gather physical cash from criminals in the UK that was then converted in to crytocurrency.

It is said that Magomedov likely used TGR Corporate Concierge LTD to facilitate invoice payments and cash transfers. 

Nikita Vladimirovich Krasnov has been described by American officials as ‘working closely with Zhdanova as a key money laundering partner’.

As part of their scheme, Krasnov – who used the alias ‘acescom’ – would arrange for intermediaries to deliver and convert bulk cash into cryptocurrency which would be deposited into cryptocurrency wallets in Zhdanova’s name. 

They pair also used a luxury watch company to facilitate trade-based money laundering. 

THE FOOTSOLDIERS 

Of all the smaller players who acted as couriers for the money laundering network, the most significant is Fawad Saiedi.

After all, it was Saiedi’s arrest that led to the downfall of the entire operation, with the London-based criminal stopped by police on the M1 in November 2021 and found with £250,000 in cash. 

He was later jailed for possessing and transferring criminal property, and was thought to have been involved in laundering more than £15m, under the instructions of Zhdanova and Krasnov.

Other cash couriers in the UK who were exposed were Semen Kuksov and Andrii Dzektsa, who between July 2022 and September 2023 oversaw the laundering of £12.3m in just 74 days. Little is known about the pair.

One courier linked to Kuksov’s network, Igor Logvinov, was arrested by An Garda Siochana in Ireland and later jailed for three years.

In Jersey in October 2021, an investigation found that Muhiddin Umurzokov, Anvarjon Eshonkulov and Batsukh Bataa had tried to launder £60,000 on the island.

They were found to be housing illegal migrants in sub-let homes that were paid for with the proceeds of drug dealing and prostitution, and were all jailed.

Two other cases saw money smugglers stopped at the border in Kent – Ukrainian nationals Taras Hirnyak and Andrii Trachuk who were found with £1 million in cash in washing powder boxes in May last year at the Channel Tunnel, and Ruslan Kaziuk who was stopped at Dover in March 2023 with taped up packages of cash.

Another courier, Andrejs Jasins, was stopped at Frankley Services on the southbound M5 near Birmingham in March 2023 and was found with £400,000 hidden under the passenger seat of his van.

The Latvian national had only flown into the UK the day before he was arrested, and was later jailed for two years.

The NCA worked with law enforcement in the US, Ireland, Jersey and France to bring down the network, which stretched across 30 countries. 

A series of sanctions, announced by US authorities on Wednesday, have been put in against individuals accused of running the network.