NEWS: ‘Professional money launderer’ linked to record Bitcoin seizure ordered to repay £5.6m

Regulatory Watch News

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  Treasury Sanctions One of the Caribbean’s Largest Narcotics Traffickers and His Network

  OFAC

  January 22, 2026

  WASHINGTON — Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated five Costa Rican nationals and five Costa Rica-based entities for their involvement in narcotics trafficking and money laundering.  A key global cocaine transshipment point, Costa Rica has become an increasingly significant waypoint for criminal organizations trafficking cocaine to the United States.  The network designated today is responsible for transporting multi-ton quantities of cocaine from Colombia, storing the drugs in Costa Rica, and ultimately shipping them to the United States and Europe.  Luis Manuel Picado Grijalba, the leader of this network, is one of the most prolific drug traffickers operating in the Caribbean.

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  Professional money launderer is ordered to payback over £5 million after a large-scale investment fraud

  The Crown Prosecution Service

  January 22, 2026

  A professional money launderer, who assisted with the laundering of funds from a high value investment fraud committed in China has been ordered to payback £5,603,305.81 or face extra time in jail – today (Thursday 22 January 2026).

  Seng Hok Ling, 47, after pleading guilty to one count of a money laundering related offence at Southwark Crown Court and was sentenced to four years and 11 months on 11 November 2025.

  The main defendant in this criminal conspiracy Zhimin Qian (aka Yadi Zhang), 47, a Chinese national, was sentenced to 11 years and eight months imprisonment after pleading guilty to two offences money laundering at Southwark Crown Court on the same day as Ling.

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  198 arrests in cross-border illegal gold mining operation in South America

  Interpol

  January 22, 2026

  LYON, France – Police and prosecutors from Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname have joined forces in their first ever transnational operation to combat illegal gold mining. The cross-border operation involved over 24,500 checks on vehicles and individuals and led to almost 200 arrests. These include the detention in Guyana of three men on suspicion of gold smuggling and money laundering. They were carrying unprocessed gold and USD 590,000 in cash and are alleged to be members of a major organized crime group with possible links to a leading Guyanan gold exporting firm