A man who was jailed for his role in a money laundering scam known as “cuckoo smurfing” has been ordered to hand over £75,150 to prosecutors.
Muhammed Hameed, 32, was ordered to give up the cash under proceeds of crime legislation following a court hearing on Monday. The scam artist was jailed for five-and -a-half years earlier this year alongside accomplices Saleem Shikari, 52, and Shahid Aslam, 36. The trio used a complicated scheme to hide almost £700,000 belonging to criminal gangs before police caught them in Dundee in 2013.
The scheme known as cuckoo smurfing involves replacing legitimate cash intended for bank transfers overseas with dirty money. Cuckoo refers to the fact that those involved pay sums of money into accounts of other people unassociated with the criminal activity. This is likened to the way a cuckoo will lay its eggs in the nests of other species of bird.
The police launched Operation Confab to catch Hameed and his accomplices, before catching them at his house with a money counter and a plastic bag containing £75,000.