Drug cartels in Italy are using Chinese money brokers for their cross-border payments to several narcotics suppliers, inducing Morocco, revealed a recent investigation by Reuters.
The investigation revealed how the cartels use this method to conceal payments, while Italian authorities are witnessing a rapid increase in such transfers to countries like Morocco, Spain, and Latin America.
Ever since this issue first surfaced five years ago, there have been a total of five investigations into it.
The shadow banks make it hard to track the transfers as it facilitates rapid payment for the cartels, which several judicial and law enforcement officials told Reuters.
They said that money transfers are part of a broader array of services offered by Chinese-linked organizations, including facilitating tax evasion, in what Italian authorities refer to as an “underground” banking system.
The transfer method entails depositing money with a money broker in one country, and then having another agent in the network pay the identical sum to the designated recipient somewhere else in the world.
Italy’s national anti-mafia prosecutor, Barbara Sargenti, confirmed that the phenomenon is on the rise, which explains the growing number of related investigations considering the noticeable increase in activity and an improved ability by authorities to detect similar cases.
“This kind of financial intermediation undermines the entire international anti-money laundering system,” she told the same source.
According to a 2020 Reuters investigation, Chinese “money brokers” are one of the most concerning new challenges to U.S. officials’ fight against drugs, and now the problem is spreading through Europe.
Chinese criminal networks are increasingly involved in the laundering of illegal proceeds in Europe, particularly those from drug trafficking, according to the European Union’s police agency, which was quoted by Reuters.
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