Five-hundred fraud-busters are to be hired in a £500million crackdown on money laundering at Post Offices and dodgy High Street shops.

They will hunt organised crime kingpins who use them to channel profits globally to countries such as Russia, the government says.

Post Offices have been identified as a ‘key vector’ for sending dirty money, and also linked to ‘hostile state actors’ operating here.

The warning came in a briefing to senior ministers – exclusively attended by WTX – about the dirty cash fuelling the UK’s drug trade and other criminal activity.

Since 2017, post office branches have been able to accept cash deposits on behalf of banks, but with less rigorous checks.

This makes it easier for drug dealers and other criminals to pay in their profits, often by splitting large amounts into multiple smaller deposits and using different accounts.

Security Minister Dan Jarvis and Treasury Minister Lucy Rigby were told these weaknesses meant post offices posed a ‘major vulnerability’ in stopping criminal cash flowing through Britain’s high streets.

The pair were visiting the National Crime Agency (NCA) to unveil the government’s new Anti-Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Strategy.

The NCA has estimated at least £12billion criminal cash is generated and laundered in the UK each year.

Jarvis told WTX: ‘It’s important that people understand that the UK is being made into a much harder target.

‘Kingpin figures thinking they can come and wash their money in the way they’ve done previously in the UK, they should understand there will be serious consequences for their criminality.

‘Stay away from the United Kingdom because we will catch you, we will bring you to justice, and we will prevent you from carrying out your criminal activity.’

The High Street was described as a ‘key vector’ for these illicit laundered profits.

Barber shops were thought to be the hub of this criminal activity, but officers discovered that a wide range of stores from petrol stations to vape shops are involved.

The Post Office was also described in the briefing as a particular target for powerful money laundering networks, linked to hostile state actors, operating in the UK.

Officers have identified three hotspot regions where criminal cash is circulating on the high streets.

These are Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and the Kent and Essex counties.

Those areas are the main focus of the High Street Organised Crime Unit, which was launched in May to crack down on laundered cash.

Tackling dirty cash on the high street is just one part of the new government strategy to go after the kingpins behind the dirty money trade.

Ministers were also briefed about efforts to destabilise powerful Russian money laundering networks.

Officers have already arrested more than 100 drug couriers connected to large-scale investigations into these transnational groups.

The NCA is also setting up a Financial Intelligence Service to improve co-operation with banks, so that officers can better track laundered money moving around the UK.

These public-private partnerships – with a number of UK banks – will combine intelligence, data and expertise to help identify and stop bank accounts involved in moving suspicious funds.

Part of the funding for the new government strategy will come from £350million stripped from criminals in the past year.

The government says it stopped £1billion of dirty money being moved, disrupted 2,700 illicit finance operations and returned £26million to victims as laundering convictions hit 4,000.

And £1million was stripped from people smugglers and immigration offenders, depriving criminal gangs of funds to pay for more illegal crossings.

Rigby told WTX: ‘We know that money laundering funds some of the most serious crimes that we face in this country, from hostile state activity at one end through to fraud and people smuggling.

‘That’s exactly why we’ve wanted to do as much as we can to clamp down on it.’

Criminologist Prof Emmeline Taylor called the strategy ‘significant’, adding: ‘Following the money is essential if we are serious about disrupting organised crime.

‘If we want a High Street renaissance, we must prevent criminal economies from taking root and driving law-abiding citizens out of business.’

A Post Office spokesperson said: ‘Money laundering is a complex issue which affects organisations across the financial sector.

‘Post Office works closely with the banks and law enforcement agencies to identity suspicious activity and disrupt criminal behaviour.

‘We continue to invest in controls, training and partnerships across the industry so we can respond to evolving threats.’