Money launderer locked up after trying to smuggle £1.2m on flight to Lebanon

Man jailed after being caught at Heathrow Airport with £1.2m hidden in suitcases

Mazen Al Shaar, 48, was stopped by Border Force officers at Terminal Three in March

Money launderer locked up after trying to smuggle £1.2m on flight to Lebanon

The supermarket worker claimed to only have £500 in cash on him

A man who tried to smuggle £1.2m in suitcases out of Heathrow to Lebanon has been jailed for 21 months.

48-year-old Mazen Al Shaar was stopped by Border Force officers in March this year as he was about to fly. The supermarket worker said he only had £500 in cash on him and that he was leaving the UK to visit family. But officers searched his three suitcases and two of them contained the huge cash haul. The total hidden in the suitcases was £1,232,880. Peter Jones, NCA operations manager, said: “Money launderers are at the absolute centre of serio…