A STRETFORD man has been jailed for his part in a multi-million pound money laundering scam.


The four men acted as the bankers and couriers for organised crime groups, laundering up to £13m worth of drug money.


The men were involved in an intricate plot to bank and launder millions of pounds on behalf of these organised crime groups.


Kamran Butt, 47, of Great Stone Street, Stretford, Sean Moore, 35, of Kingfisher Grove, Liverpool, Instar Ahmed, 56, of Kelstern Square, Longsight, and Stephen McKenna, 56, of Maley Street, Liverpool, pleaded guilty to money laundering at an earlier hearing.


They were sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on January 16.


Butt and Ahmed were jailed for three years and six months while Moore and McKenna were jailed for 14 months, suspended for 12 months.


The four men, in varying degrees, played their roles in helping organised crime groups effectively 'clean' their drug money by laundering it through bank accounts.


The conspiracy unmasked by the Greater Manchester Police Money Laundering Unit, showed these four men were receiving sums of money from criminal networks.


On August 22 2011, police intercepted Ahmed and McKenna – three rucksacks stuffed with up to £200,000 in cash were seized.


The investigation revealed that about £11m had been laundered over a three month period.


On September 16 2011, Sean Moore was seen in company with Kamran Butt in his Mercedes vehicle.


Butt was stopped and a bag seized, which was found to contain about £120,000 in cash.


Butt's Stretford home was searched and a further £10,000 was seized.


Det Con Paul Bayliss said: "This has been an extremely complicated and difficult investigation to crack, but I am delighted that thanks to the perseverance and tenacity of everyone who worked on the job, we have secured these convictions.


"When we unravelled the many threads of this investigation, we discovered was an orchestrated plot to launder the ill-gotten cash that organised crime groups were making from the drug trade.


"In convicting these men, Greater Manchester Police has made massive inroads into disrupting this organised crime group.


“These criminal networks are driven by money, so by exposing the way they launder their money, we have significantly eroded their power base and made it very difficult for them to operate.


"Greater Manchester Police is committed to disrupting and dismantling organised crime groups and tackling them from every possible angle."