Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Moroccan Crime Boss "washed up"?



You really can't make this stuff up. "Crime boss tried to launder £600,000 in washing machine." But, yes folks, it is all true. According to reports in the UK media a Moroccan crime boss who attempted launder more than £500,000 of drug money using a washing machine, has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.

However, the story about laundering is not to be taken too literally. The real story is that Karim Bernia aged 39 of Atkinson Road, Plaistow, dispatched a van driver to carry nearly £700,000 in cash gained from cannabis dealing back to Morocco.

When the vehicle was stopped in Dover in March nearly £600,000 was found in a hollowed-out washing machine in the back and £85,000 in the front.

Lyall Thompson, prosecuting, said: "The internal workings of this machine had been removed and that cavity had been filled to the brim with black sacks containing cash."

Tests on the 143 bundles of money found showed significant traces of cannabis, the court heard.

After arresting the driver, El-Hassan Bouhafna, police tracked down Bernia to his home in Atkinson Road, Plaistow, east London. Keys found at the property led them to a second van where they discovered another hollowed-out washing machine, the Old Bailey heard.

Mr Thompson said: "Mr Bernia was running a substantial money laundering enterprise. He was transferring large amounts of cash derived through drug activities to Morocco."

The judge, Recorder Douglas Day QC, said: "Those who involve themselves in this level of money laundering must expect to be dealt with severely."

Bouhafna, 45, a Moroccan of no fixed address, who was said to be a trusted associate of Bernia's, was jailed for 21 months after pleading guilty to transferring criminal property totalling £85,000.

Bernia, who is also from Morocco, admitted the same count, and a second relating to £600,000.

The judge told him: "I have no doubt that you are higher up the organisation – if not at the very top.

Maybe the most damming remark was the judge's comment "You were responsible for implementing a reasonably sophisticated scheme for exporting large amounts of money to Morocco. Ouch!

"This was a very serious case of money laundering relating to the poisonous trade of drug trafficking."

Now, if they had used Euros....

On a lighter note, it is all a great reason for the Brits not to be in the Euro zone. If they had used 500 euro notes they could have got the lot in a microwave. Perhaps the Bank of England limiting the Poms to £50 notes is doing them all a favour.




20 comments:

Anonymous said...

I will wait you back Bernia ....

Bernia said...

Thank you. I will be a couple more years yet...

Anonymous said...

Bernia...the time flies so quickly...a couple years is nothing :)......on Christmas 2011 you will be out :) and happy!!!...

Bernia said...

It keeps me going to know you care. I have problems with an in-growing toenail but apart from that, life is day to day. I do hope you managed to get a new washingmachine.

Anonymous said...

..my washingmachine is broken now ...i wash all my clothes by hand..and i like it..dresses looks better then...

Bernia said...

Oh, darling, you have no idea how moving that is. When they took the old washing machine away as evidence, my first thought was about you. Now, my mind is filled with images of you in "that" dress - I am certain you know the one I mean. The one that swirls and falls, like whisps of mist above a warm river... Shukran habiba bazef as they say in the old country.

Anonymous said...

....~The one that swirls and falls, like whisps of mist above a warm river~.. It sounds so natural true.
I am sure you could make fantastic artwork of your image.
When I wash my dress by hand I feel the power of the water,I feel- the water is alive.I speak to water. Everywhere water is a thing of beauty,a song in the summer rain, ocean fishes and magic of the planet. I am sure the water does not like to be in washingmachine.

Berni said...

Oh, you touch my heart. For you know how I feel at the moment - like water trapped in a washing machine. Yet, when I think of your blue dress, I see the sky. I see sky without bars. And when I think of the water running free, unleashed to find its own level... then you know it is you that keeps me going.

PS. Please don't damage your hands with washing powders when you wash by hand.

PPS My ingrown toe nail is worse today

Anonymous said...

I know you love blue color, blue sky and and blue ocean..recently I passed one building where all windows were with bars...then i felt so bad....i love when its raining, then nobody can see my tears...
Your appearance here is Magic,unbelievable!!!...The Universe is so clever, more then us - human beings.
I think washing machine is supposed to be for British pounds :)) not for live water...

Bernia said...

Yes, it is magic! But not just magic. After working in the laundry at Hollesley, I managed to get a job in the library and by pulling favours now work in the library where there is a computer.
The washing machine sage seems a lifetime ago.
I plan to stick to Euros from now on.
The thought of your tears brings a lump to my throat. I shut my eyes and imagine the blue dress, the soft lights... that wonderful silk pillow...

Anonymous said...

You never give up...you are so brave, real agent 007 :))!!!

For now if you work in library you can read a lot and it is good for your soul and intellect. In your situation I advice to you two books like ~The Secret~ or ~The power of subconscious mind~. Because our mind is so powerful, this is a magic formula of the Universe. If you keep something in your mind what you really want in your life to be happy and feel it like real, imagine it with all colors, sounds and sense clearly, you can bring it from inside world to outside real world, even it seems at the moment so far and impossible. Believe me -in this Universe everything in possible if you Believe truly!!!
..I think you should visit a doctor. The in-growing toenail is not joke.

Bernia said...

So kind of you to make my grey days blue!
Good news. The prison doctor finally took care of my toe problem. It was a very interesting procedure. I had some numbing paste rubbed on my toe and then a small injection (you know how I hate needles!). Then (I could not bare to watch) they did some cutting and so on. It was over in thirty minutes and I now have some feeling back in my toe, but my foot is uncomfortable to walk on.

Enough of my problems. I hope you are feeding the parrot. I awoke after a dream in which our darling bird was wanting to be free of its cage and fly around the apartment as it used to love doing. Such a poignant and symbolic dream.

If you see Nabil, please tell him his investment is safe. Give him my brotherly greetings and tell him that all will be well, inshallah!

Anonymous said...

I am really happy for you, I know you will be OK!!!

That day is coming with the wind wings when you will feel happy and you will see blue sky without bars, flying free as a bird .....

It is coming. You are gonna get it. You are gonna love it. And then you are gonna forget there was ever a time when you did not have it.

Simply--Do not give up!!!

Bernia said...

Unfortunately "not giving up" is easy to say.

I have noticed that different people cope by adapting different ways of being. Some prisoners learn to find safety in social invisibility by becoming as inconspicuous and unobtrusively disconnected from others as possible. The self-imposed social withdrawal and isolation may mean that they retreat deeply into themselves, trust virtually no one, and adjust to prison stress by leading isolated lives of quiet desperation. In extreme cases, especially when combined with prisoner apathy and loss of the capacity to initiate behavior on one's own, the pattern closely resembles that of clinical depression. Long-term prisoners are particularly vulnerable to this form of psychological adaptation.
Me? Well, now that my toe problem is sorted, I am taking your advice and reading a lot and I may take up a musical instrument. I am leaning towards bagpipes at the moment.

Anonymous said...

..I can not bear to read this..it is so sad..:(((..

Anonymous said...

P.S. I love bagpipes. This sound reminds something from old countries, sound of the forest or traveling out of time - very different from modern music! :)

Bernia said...

I am so sorry for not writing. I had a dispute with the authorities and had my 'privileges' revoked for several days.

Bagpipes are out. I tried to insist, but have been told that the noise would cause 'extreme discomfort'. Instead I have been told I can learn harmonica, harmonica or harmonica. Unfortunately we have to supply our own instruments and so I have ordered a Jambone in C. It comes with a tuition book. If I make any progress I will try and get others in different keys.

Good news! My toe problem is now extinct. Mmm maybe "gone" is a better word? Anyway, no scar, no pain and happy feet, humdullilah!

Anonymous said...

Listen! I have an idea!!!

Change your attitude. Imagine you are in same kind of camp where you meant to be for education, self development and spiritual growth. First of all enroll in prison college for Business degree, then make a list of books you are interested in, go to gym or swimming pool every second day, create your art gallery. Write down business plan of your future life- goals and dreams.Think how to achieve this.
Then- you will be so busy that you forget-you are in prison!!!
This time will be not wasted time, but precious, special time when you achieve more than during the life-time.
After 1,5 years you coming out not like depressed ghost who lost his own direction, but healthy, convinced, wise, person who knows what is real life for him.

Try it! You can ! :)

Anonymous said...

Bernia...What do you think about 21. December of 2012?

Anonymous said...

Listen Bernia,,,,are you still there in??? sometimes they let go out after 1/2 term.....