UK to Recruit 500 Officers in £500 Million Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Push
The UK government has announced plans to recruit 500 additional officers and invest more than £500 million over three years as part of a new Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy aimed at disrupting money laundering networks and recovering criminal assets.
The officers will be deployed across police forces, the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The government said the additional capacity will be used to trace illicit funds, target organised crime leaders and seize assets, including money linked to Russian and other international laundering networks.
The investment will be funded through the economic crime levy. The strategy is intended to strengthen the UK’s ability to prevent criminals from hiding, moving and profiting from illicit proceeds, with a particular emphasis on intelligence capabilities, technology, public-private cooperation and international asset recovery.
Government reports higher disruption and asset-recovery figures
Alongside the strategy, the government reported that almost £350 million in criminal proceeds had been stripped from offenders during the past year, while more than £1 billion had been denied to criminals. It said £26 million had been returned to victims, 2,700 illicit-finance operations had been disrupted and money laundering convictions had risen to almost 4,000.
The government also said almost £1 million had been recovered from people smugglers and immigration offenders over the same period.
The scale of the challenge remains substantial. The NCA estimates that more than £100 billion is laundered through the UK or UK corporate structures each year. According to the government, laundering networks facilitate the movement and concealment of proceeds from drug trafficking, fraud, people smuggling and corruption, while also enabling hostile actors and elites to move illicit wealth through the international financial system.
Operation Destabilise and international laundering networks
The new resources will build on the NCA’s Operation Destabilise, which targets Russian-linked money laundering networks operating in the UK and overseas. The government said 119 suspected money launderers had been arrested and more than £25 million in cash and cryptoassets seized in less than 12 months through the operation.
The strategy also envisages a more modern financial-intelligence capability and deeper cooperation between law enforcement and the private sector. The NCA said the investment would increase operational capacity to pursue money launderers and the financial infrastructure they use across borders.
The Serious Fraud Office will contribute to the strategy through international asset-recovery work and a review of money laundering prosecutions. The Financial Conduct Authority also highlighted planned reforms to AML supervision of professional services as an opportunity to strengthen consistency of oversight and improve the identification and disruption of financial crime.
Sources
UK Government — Hundreds of new officers to hunt down dirty money networks, 15 September 2026
