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A gang involved in international money laundering and people smuggling have been given jail sentences of more than 70 years in total.

Sixteen people were sentenced on Friday after a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation into the network that likely smuggled around £70m in cash out of the UK, making hundreds of trips to Dubai between 2017 and 2019.

They are believed to have made the money from the sale of class A drugs and organised immigration crime.

Gang leader Charan Singh, 45, from Hounslow, was jailed for 12-and-a-half years today after he was found guilty of a money laundering conspiracy.

His second-in-command Valjeet Singh was sentenced to 11 years, while Swander Singh Dhal got 10 years for money laundering and an additional five years for people smuggling.

Eighteen people were prosecuted in total across two trials at Croydon Crown Court, with the other 15 members of the group given sentences ranging between nine years and 11 months.

Afghans found 'visibly sweating' inside van

The NCA seized £1.5m in cash, but its analysis of flight data and cash declarations revealed far more had been smuggled.

They also uncovered a plot to smuggle 17 Afghan migrants, including five children, aged between five and 14, and a pregnant woman, into the country in the back of a van in 2019.

Dutch police found them visibly sweating, hidden in two special wooden compartments with no ventilation holes behind a wall of tyres.

Following further investigations, in November 2019 Charan Singh, who was formerly a resident of the UAE, was among those arrested in a series of early morning raids across west London.

Singh paid for flights to Dubai for members of his group to carry cash, keeping a ledger of how much had been transported and when. It showed at least 58 trips were made by him and his couriers in 2017 alone.

The first trial, which began in January and concluded in April, saw six people, including Singh, found guilty of money laundering offences. Two defendants were additionally convicted for facilitating illegal immigration along with a third individual.

Midway through the second trial, which started in April, six defendants changed their plea to guilty in relation to money laundering offences.

The NCA's senior investigating officer Chris Hill said after Friday's sentencing: "Charan Singh and his network thought they were untouchable, moving tens of millions of pounds of criminal cash out of the UK.

"The sentences handed down today marks the culmination of that investigation and years of work by our officers.

"We remain determined to protect the public and target criminal networks operated by those like Charan Singh, and we will use the full range of tactics at our disposal to disrupt and dismantle them."

Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings can now start to identify and take back assets gained through the gang's illegal activity.

The sentences are as follows:

• Charan Singh, of Hounslow, was sentenced to 12 years and six months after being found guilty of conspiring to remove criminal property;
• Valjeet Singh, also of Hounslow, was sentenced to 11 years after being found guilty of conspiring to remove criminal property and four counts of removing criminal property. He was found not guilty of two separate counts of removing criminal property;
• Swander Singh Dhal, of Hounslow, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of conspiring to remove criminal property and conspiring to breach immigration law. He was cleared of a separate count of conspiring to remove criminal property;
• Jasbir Singh Kapoor, of Hayes, was sentenced to nine years and six months in prison after being found guilty of two counts of conspiring to remove criminal property. He was found not guilty of conspiring to breach immigration law;
• Jasbir Singh Dhal, of Southall, was sentenced to seven years and six months after being found guilty of conspiring to remove criminal property;
• Diljan Singh Malhotra, of Uxbridge, was given six years in prison after being found guilty of conspiring to facilitate a beach of immigration law. He was cleared of two counts of conspiring to remove criminal property;
• Mircea Denes, of Northolt, was sentenced to six years in his absence after he was found guilty of conspiring to breach immigration law - but absconded. A warrant has been issued for his arrest;
• Vasile Costache, of Hounslow, was found not guilty of conspiring to breach immigration law;
• Sundar Vengadassalm, of Southall, was sentenced to 10 months in prison after being convicted of removing criminal property - but not guilty of five other counts;
• Amarjeet Alabadis, of Hounslow, was sentenced to one year and 11 months in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of removing criminal property;
• Jaginder Kapoor, of Hayes, was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison having pleaded guilty to eight counts of removing criminal property;
• Jackdar Kapoor, of Southall, was given four years and six months in prison after pleading guilty to 18 counts of removing criminal property;
• Manmon Singh Kapur, of Hayes, was handed four years in prison after pleading guilty to seven counts of removing criminal property;
• Pinky Kapur, of Hayes, was sentenced to 11 months in prison after pleading guilty to removing criminal property;
• Jasbeer Singh Malhotra, of Hanwell, was sentenced to one year and five months in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of removing criminal property;
• Louise Smith, of Dudley, West Midlands, was given a suspended sentence of 16 months after pleading guilty to two counts of removing criminal property;
• Joe Round, also of Dudley, was also given a suspended sentence - of 12 months - after pleading guilty to two counts of removing criminal property.