UK seizes thousands from former FBI Most Wanted US gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger

Thousands of pounds have been seized from the British bank accounts of a notorious American gangster who was once on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.

The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) recovered £53,041 from accounts used by James "Whitey" Bulger, the former leader of a violent crime gang based in Boston.

Bulger, who was murdered in prison in 2018 aged 89, led the Winter Hill Gang and was convicted of multiple murders, racketeering, drug dealing, firearms possession, money laundering and extortion.

The crime lord went into hiding in 1994 after learning he was about to be charged by US authorities, leading to a $1m (£740,000) FBI reward for information leading to his capture.

He remained at large for 16 years until he was arrested in 2011 in Santa Monica, California.

In 2013, he was sentenced to two consecutive life terms plus five years after being found to be involved in 11 murders.

NCA officers discovered Bulger had opened two accounts in the UK in the early 1990s, one in his own name and another in an alias.

A freezing order was made by a judge last year and has now returned more than £50,000 to US authorities to compensate the relatives of Bulger's victims.

Rob Burgess, head of investigations for the NCA's asset denial unit, said: "Bulger brought misery and heartbreak to countless families and we are proud to have worked with our American partners to see his criminally obtained wealth returned to the US."

When he was jailed, the court transferred more than $25m (£18m) to the government, judging that was how much he had made from racketeering.

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He was also ordered to pay more than $19m (£14m) to the families of his victims.

Hollywood actor Jonny Depp played Bulger in the 2015 crime thriller Black Mass, and Jack Nicholson's character, Frank Costello in the Oscar-winning Martin Scorsese film, The Departed, is said to be loosely based on Bulger.

In 2024, a former Mafia hitman was jailed for another 25 years for beating Bulger to death within hours of arriving in prison in West Virginia.

(c) Sky News 2026: UK seizes thousands from former FBI Most Wanted US gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger