Royal Court confiscates £8,000 from drugs money launderer

Monday 30 October 2017

Jersey's Royal Court has confiscated £8,000 from a 52-year-old man who was sentenced to four years in prison in May, after he helped to launder drugs money.

The Court heard that Darryn Rae visited the island 22 times between 2015 and 2016 and collected a total of £22,200 between July and November.

Officers saw Rae meeting Antonio Miguel Spinola, who was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison, on two occasions on 30 July and 1 September 2016. Following those meetings, Rae was seen depositing cash into different bank accounts, a total of £14,200.

On a third occasion, on 24 November 2016, Rae and Spinola were arrested whilst they were sitting in the same car with a bag containing £8,000 in cash. Rae gave "no comment" answers when asked about the cash deposits he had made during his prior trip to Jersey and stated he had no savings.

However, Spinola said that Rae had asked him to do "a few bits and pieces for him," which included collecting cash from various people and holding it at his flat until Rae would arrange a time and place to collect it. He stated he had been doing so since August 2016 and officers found £65,205 in cash when searching his flat.

While Crown Advocate Matthew Maletroit said the estimate total profit Rae made from his activities was in excess of £646,000, the Crown could only confiscate the money Rae was found with when arrested in Jersey.