A man who heads up TGR, a network operating in the UK that launders cash for drugs gangs, illegal firearm suppliers and people smugglers, purchased a bank in Kyrgyzstan that facilitates sanctions evasion to the benefit of Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to a BBC report on a British National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation.

The investigation into Russian money laundering that has the man, George Rossi, in its sights is codenamed Operation Destabilise. The bank said to be making payments on behalf of Russia’s war machine is Keremet Bank.

In the report from the British public broadcaster, the NCA points out that buying cocaine on a Friday night in Britain can indirectly help Russian arms factories.

Sal Melki, the NCA’s deputy director for economic crime, talked of a "vast criminal ecosystem that is funding some really bad things all around the world".

Rossi is said to have bought Keremet Bank through his company Altair Holding, taking a 75% stake on Christmas Day 2024.

Further work is reported to have shown that Keremet Bank was facilitating payments for Russian state-owned bank Promsvyazbank (PSB), described by the US treasury as a "sanctions evasion hub".

The BBC said the NCA determined Keremet Bank was helping PSB make payments for "Russia's military-industrial base".

Operation Destabilise was further reported as finding that TGR, and a counterpart Smart, were dealing with "billions of pounds of criminal wealth", laundering money through cash-rich businesses such as in construction, or bundling it up in "stash houses" and taking it abroad for laundering in other countries. The cash was apparently sometimes smuggled out hidden in boxes of washing powder and baby formula.

In September, taking aim at international sanctions introduced against Keremet Bank and other entities in Kyrgyzstan, the country’s president, Sadyr Japarov, said the sanctions were “interference” in internal affairs.