A man has been jailed for more than three years after being found to have laundered more than £4 million for organised crime groups.

Bilal Tozsu, from Margate, travelled throughout the UK collecting the money on behalf of gangs which had been obtained through criminal activity.

In March, the 44-year-old was stopped in his car on the M4 at Magor near Newport by officers from Tarian, the Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) for southern Wales, working in partnership with Gwent Police.

During a search of his vehicle officers found bags of large bundles of cash, later confirmed to total more than £285,000.

The subsequent investigation into Tozsu’s activities revealed the full extent of his role in aiding organised crime.

Det Con Sean Meyrick, from Tarian’s Regional Disruption team, said: “Bilal Tozsu played a significant role in helping organised crime groups benefit from the proceeds of crime.

“Cash is the lifeblood of these groups, enabling them to reinvest ‘laundered’ money into activities such as drug trafficking, which in turn fuels violence and fear.

“Tarian is committed to tackling organised criminality and we welcome the sentence today.

“The money recovered during this investigation has been prevented from reaching the hands of those who would use it to inflict the most harm upon our region.”

He has now been jailed for 40 months for transferring criminal property contrary to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.