A member of an international drugs smuggling gang made it easier for investigators to prove he was a money launderer.

Vladimir Cahani had been stopped in Folkestone with more than Euros 128,000 stashed in the dashboard of his flash Audi car at 4am.

He denied concealing criminal property – but then officers found his photo on his mobile phone, with him sporting a GB Team T shirt and brandishing wads of cash!

A jury at Canterbury Crown Court heard how he and his wife Ardita had used their nine- month-old child as cover to take the drugs cash out of the country.

Forensic officers traced fingerprints on the money to two other Albanians who were jailed for seven and six a half years at Reading in 2014.

Now the Cahanis, from London, have both been found guilty of concealing criminal property and face long prison sentences.

The judge ordered sentence to take place in September – but ruled Vladimir to be locked up because he now posed a flight risk.

Ardita, 26, was granted bail until the next hearing but was told she too could face a jail sentence for her part in the money laundering scam.

The two were travelling out of Folkestone when Border Force officers conducted a random search at Cheriton.

Underneath the dashboard of the red Audi, they found taped packages containing Euros 128,540, which led ultimately to drugs smugglers Lufti Muja and Urim Bardoshi, who later admitted trying to bring 1 kg of cocaine into the UK.

Rebecca Randall for Vladimir, 33, asked the judge to be merciful and allow him bail so he could be at the birth of his son next month.

But the prosecution objected saying Vladimir was linked to “organised crime” and should be considered now as posing a “significant flight risk from justice” – and the judge agreed.

The investigation was led by the National Crime Agency.

Matt Rivers from the NCA’s Border Policing Command said: “Money launderers underpin almost all organised crime. Criminal networks cannot operate without their services. In this case we were able to directly link the money found in Cahani’s car to known drug dealers.”