IN HER OWN WORDS: What AMLA Chair Bruna Szego told MEPs were the agency’s top priorities for 2026-27

Regulatory Watch News

• 

  Crime family who used corrupt airline check-in attendant to help smuggle vast amounts of drugs cash to the UAE are convicted

  National Crime Agency

  June 8, 2026

  A criminal family and their associates smuggled almost £30 million of cash out of the UK to the United Arab Emirates hidden in suitcases. A National Crime Agency investigation showed that the group worked with a British Dubai-based organiser to smuggle the money via Dubai-bound Emirates flights leaving from Manchester, Birmingham and Brussels airports between December 2017 and November 2019. Couriers smuggled the criminal cash in up to five suitcases at a time, sometimes helped by corrupt Emirates check-in attendant Emma Rauf, who worked at Manchester Airport.

• 

  Revealed: the sophisticated script Cambodian scammers used to pose as AFP officers

  Australia Federal Police

  June 8, 2026

    The AFP and Royal Thai Police have uncovered a script used by cybercriminals in a Cambodian scam compound to impersonate AFP officers and target unwitting Australian victims. The script was unearthed when the Royal Thai Miliary discovered the compound in O’Smach, a small town in Cambodia, in January, 2026. They alerted Royal Thai Police, who then advised the AFP. The raid also discovered AFP logos and signage allegedly used to make the site appear as a legitimate AFP facility during the scam via video calls.

• 

  Investigation Metallo: EPPO seizes additional assets in investigation into €42.8 million VAT fraud

  European Public Prosecutor's Office

  June 5, 2026

  (Luxembourg, 5 June 2026) – At the request of the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) in Bologna, Turin and Palermo (Italy), the Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza) of Prato has seized additional assets worth over €6 million, as part of an investigation into a suspected VAT carousel fraud involving luxury vehicles. Law enforcement carried out 16 searches in the residence of the suspects and companies under investigation, in the provinces of Rome, Naples, Vibo Valentia, Palermo and Catania, and arrested two individuals. Coercive measures were applied to five additional suspects, including house arrest for two of them, prohibition on acting as managers or board members of commercial companies for four of them, obligations to remain at their place of residence and regular reporting to the police.