finance - Blog - Gangsters Inc. - www.gangstersinc.org
2024-03-29T13:27:04Z
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/feed/tag/finance
The Black Market Pesos Exchange: Italian-led operation busts intricate system used to launder drug money for criminals
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/the-black-market-pesos-exchange-italian-led-operation-busts-intri
2023-05-31T08:37:48.000Z
2023-05-31T08:37:48.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11183233459?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>Police in Italy and Spain arrested 33 suspects yesterday morning in a coordinated action against a globally active money laundering criminal network. The alleged perpetrators, who are of Italian, Albanian, Colombian, Moroccan, and Syrian nationality, had built up an international network of companies to launder dirty money.</p>
<p>As a so-called “money laundering network controller”, the group offered a professional criminal service to veil the origin of proceeds generated by illegal drug trafficking from South America.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/mafia-math-calculating-italian-organized-crime-s-illicit-income" target="_blank"><strong>Mafia Math: Calculating Italian organized crime’s illicit income</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>With the support of Europol and Eurojust, money-laundering specialists from the Italian Guardia di Finanza uncovered a network of electronics companies located around the globe and seized €18,5 million in assets.</p>
<p>The intricate structure used companies in countries such as China, Turkey, and the United States, amongst others. This complex web of companies allowed organized crime to disguise the nature, source, location, ownership, control, origin and/or destination of illegally acquired funds and to avoid their detection.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Black Market Pesos Exchange</strong></span></p>
<p>In order to launder drug profits generated in Europe, the arrested individuals offered a service of trade-based money laundering known as the “Black Market Pesos Exchange”. This process reduces the risk of losing money through seizures and allows for faster access to the funds.</p>
<p>The drug producers would provide drugs to the Italian buyers as a form of credit. The profits generated from the sale of the drugs in Europe were then picked up by brokers, introduced into companies, and used for ordering goods such as mobile phones from China, to state just one example.</p>
<p><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aCDfRJoe_q8" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
<p>These goods were then shipped to the United States and further transported to Colombia, where they were offered on the market. Upon being sold, the cartels such as the Grupo Armado Organizado received the cash and thus their veiled payment for the drugs provided to European sellers.</p>
<p>Based on international law enforcement cooperation between the Italian Guardia di Finanza and the Spanish Policía Nacional, supported by Europol and Eurojust, the criminal network’s modus operandi could be unraveled. In Italy alone, €18,5 million could be traced back as money laundered for organized crime groups.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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British police seize gold bars from international money laundering network
https://gangstersinc.org/blog/british-police-seize-gold-bars-from-international-money-launderin
2022-02-02T09:56:39.000Z
2022-02-02T09:56:39.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/10064746471?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>You can’t beat gold. Make it rain with dollars, euros or pounds all you want, but nothing makes it rain like gold. Better yet, it’s the original blockchain. Melt it down and nobody can trace it. Weigh it and its worth the same amount as before. Old school but still an ideal money laundering tool.</p>
<p>No wonder then that many modern-day criminal groups still use it to launder their dirty money. In Great Britain, the National Crime Agency (NCA) last week obtained a forfeiture order for 15 gold bars worth £650,000 that are linked to an international money laundering network.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>The woman from Singapore</strong></span></p>
<p>NCA financial investigators took up the case after a Singaporean national was stopped at Heathrow Airport in March 2020, having arrived on a flight from Singapore. The woman was transiting through the airport to catch a plane to Chennai, India, and Border Force officers found she was carrying the bars in her hand luggage.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>WATCH: </strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/dressed-as-cops-robbers-steal-40-million-worth-of-gold-at-sao-pau" target="_blank"><strong>Dressed as cops, robbers steal $40 million worth’ of gold at Sao Paulo airport in Brazil</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>She initially told NCA investigators she was taking the bars from a jeweler in Singapore to another jeweler in India. She had no explanation for her strange routing. The gold was seized as suspected proceeds of crime, and the woman was allowed to continue on her journey.</p>
<p>Further enquiries by the NCA revealed invoices she was carrying for the gold were fake, and the Chennai jeweler did not exist. Following a two-day hearing at Uxbridge Magistrates on Wednesday 26 January 2022, the NCA was awarded forfeiture of the bars under the Proceeds of Crime Act.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“Active in both Europe and Asia”</strong></span></p>
<p>“Gold is an attractive commodity for criminals to use to move money because relatively small amounts can have a high value,” NCA Branch Commander Andy Noyes said. “Our investigation pointed to these gold bars belonging to a criminal money laundering network active in both Europe and Asia."</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-story-of-organized-crime-is-the-story-of-the-modern-world-jou" target="_blank">“The story of organized crime is the story of the modern world”</a> – Journalists explore global crime in Underworld podcast</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>“We think they were attempting to move them through London to try and disguise their routing, and avoid the attentions of Indian law enforcement upon arrival there. NCA investigators worked with Indian partners to disprove the story given to officers by the woman carrying the gold bars, and show that on the balance of probabilities they were proceeds of crime. Working with partners like Border Force we are determined to do all we can to disrupt the flow of illicit money coming through the UK.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out our <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/gangsters-inc-on-social-media">social media channels</a></strong></li>
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<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>