Australian police yesterday revealed they had cracked a major global money-laundering ring with operatives in more than 20 countries and funds syphoned off to groups reported to include Hezbollah.
The Australian Crime Commission said more than A$580 million (US$512 million) of drugs and assets had been seized, including A$26 million in cash, in a year-long sting codenamed Eligo targeting the offshore laundering of funds generated by outlaw motorcycle gangs, people-smugglers and others.
According to the commission, the operation had disrupted 18 serious and organized crime groups and singled out 128 individuals of interest in more than 20 countries, tapping information from agencies including the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
The full details of which countries had been involved were not revealed, but acting commission chief Paul Jevtovic said “the reality is that the Middle East and Southeast Asia have featured prominently.”
“Drug importations into Australia continue to be the main profit source by organized crime here in this country, but there is a range of other things, serious organized investment frauds, identity theft,” Jevtovic said.
Eligo saw 105 people arrested on 190 separate charges and resulted in the closure of three major clandestine methamphetamine labs and Australia’s largest-ever urban hydroponic cannabis hothouse in Sydney in November last year.
It was described as “one of the most successful money-laundering investigations in Australian law enforcement history” by the commission.
“The task force focused on high-threat money-laundering activities and, as a result, revealed a range of different crime types which has led to these extraordinary outcomes,” Australian Justice Minister Michael Keenan said.
“Seizing more than A$550 million worth of drugs and cash is a significant blow to the criminal economy,” he added.
Legitimate international cash wiring services were a major focus of the operation, with the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, the government’s anti-laundering agency, saying they had been identified as at “high risk of being exploited by serious and organized crime groups.”
A Fairfax media expose on the operation found criminals targeted foreign nationals and students in Australia awaiting remittances from overseas, hijacking the transaction by depositing dirty money to the payee and then taking the cash wired from offshore.
Fairfax said at least one of the exchange houses used in the Middle East and Asia delivered a cut from every dollar it laundered to Lebanon’s powerful Shiite movement and Syria ally Hezbollah, which is banned as a terrorist organization in Australia.
“It was just never-ending,” acting commission chief Col Blanch said. “We were regularly finding bags of $500,000 and $400,000.”
Eligo netted a record A$5.7 million single cash seizure in Sydney at the weekend — seven suitcases stuffed with bills uncovered in an apartment near the city’s airport.
A 58-year-old US citizen who recently arrived in Australia via Costa Rica has been charged with dealing with the proceeds of crime over the stash.
“This is one of Australia’s largest cash seizures,” federal police commissioner Tony Negus said.
The ACC is also monitoring the use of bitcoin, a so-called virtual crypto-currency generated by a complex computer algorithm.
Bitcoin made headlines last year when US authorities closed the Silk Road Web site after the currency was found being used to buy illegal drugs, forged documents, hacker tools and even the services of hit men.
The commission estimates that organized crime costs Australia A$10 billion to A$15 billion per year, with drugs, money laundering, fraud, firearms and high-tech cyberoffenses the major issues.
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