Money launderers who tried to smuggle over £55,000 in criminal proceeds from Jersey were caught in a sting operation and jailed by the Royal Court.
Danish national Mahmud Mounir Abdulrazek (34) was sentenced to two years and two months’ imprisonment, whilst Swedish national Hamza Khattab (31) was jailed for two years and six months.
They had both pleaded guilty to one count of entering a money-laundering arrangement.
First suspicions
The Jersey Customs and Immigration Service became suspicious of another man – identified only as Mr A – who made two trips to Jersey in a few days.
He flew from London to Jersey on 27 September 2025, back to London on 29 September, to Jersey on 30 September, and returned to London on 1 October.
Speaking in the Royal Court, Crown Advocate Luke Sette listed the items Mr A had tried to bring into Jersey on 30 September: a receipt for the purchase of two iPhones from the Apple IQ shop, £3,058 in cash, mostly made up of English £50 notes, and some personal items. He claimed to have sold the two iPhones.
When Mr A left Jersey the second time, customs officers seized more than £10,000 from him, and also found he had four new iPhones, still in their packaging.
Though Mr A has not been charged with any offences, he wasn’t named to avoid prejudicing other cases.
How the plan was foiled
After becoming suspicious when Mr A travelled to Jersey the second time, officers launched a surveillance operation – tracking his hotels, watching which bags he carried, and placing surveillance equipment.
Officers were present when he bought two iPhones at the Apple IQ store using £20 and £50 notes, and overheard him telling an employee the phones weren’t for him.
They also noticed a blue holdall bag that Mr A had been carrying had disappeared by the time he got into a taxi to return to the airport.
Officers discovered that, on top of a reservation at the Radisson Blu Waterfront hotel, Mr A had also checked into Longueville Manor. He paid for his £800 booking in cash before leaving the island.
After Mr A checked out of the Radisson, officers searched his room and found receipts from shops in Jersey worth over £2,000.
After Mr A was searched when he entered and left the island, he was “no longer considered a viable option” to transport tens-of-thousands of pounds in cash – most likely the proceeds of drugs – out of Jersey.
That’s where Khattab and Abdulrazek came in, enlisted at short notice to pick up the cash from Longueville Manor.
After booking a last-minute room there, Mr A extended his stay on the phone and agreed with the hotel that the two men – whom he described as his friends – could stay there.
Before Khattab and Abdulrazek arrived, officers searched the room at Longueville Manor and found a shoebox containing £55,148.45 in cash in the safe.
Officers took the cash, changed the code to the safe, and installed “covert surveillance equipment”, the advocate said.
Hidden cameras placed in the room recorded the two men attempting to open the safe and talking about how a bag left there was empty.
Around 15 minutes after the two men arrived at Longueville Manor, they were arrested.
Khattab and Abdulrazek did not offer a “plausible” explanation for their trip when interviewed by police.
Defence
Advocate Olaf Blakeley, representing Abdulrazek, said his client was not closely involved in the operation and did not know the people further up the chain.
“If anything, he was just a comfort companion,” he said. “He wasn’t doing anything.”
Advocate Blakeley said that because there had been delays in finding a Danish interpreter, Abdulrazek’s plea should count as if it were entered at the first opportunity.
“This wasn’t a sophisticated offence,” he added.
Advocate Mike Preston, defending Khattab, said his client was “very sorry for having got his co-defendant involved in this fateful trip”.
Khattab “thought he was doing an old friend a favour” by picking up money earned via cryptocurrency, the advocate said.
When he realised he was involved in a crime, Khattab “unfortunately went ahead anyway”, he said.
Both men were far down the chain of command, their lawyers said.
Sentence
Handing down the court’s sentence, Deputy Bailiff Mark Temple, presiding, said money laundering was “a serious offence” and that because Jersey’s economy is “significantly concerned by financial services”, there had to be a deterrent element to the sentence.
He said that because the cash contained Jersey banknotes, it was likely that it was the result of crimes committed directly in Jersey.
Both men have been recommended for deportation at the end of their sentences.
The Deputy Bailiff was presiding with Jurats Jane Ronge and Alison Opfermann.