Money laundering headed by mafia in three cities

Money laundering is a massive $113 billion a year racket by the mafia largely based in three cities, says Blackwells Reporter.

“The extent of money laundering in Canada is estimated between $45 billion and $113 billion,” said a report by the RCMP-led Criminal Intelligence Service, which added mob fronts include retailers, trucking companies, contractors and warehouse operators.

“Professional money launderers and their networks pose a significant threat to Canada’s financial system,” wrote RCMP Chief Superintendent Rob Gilchrist.

“They can process larger volumes through more complicated streams while remaining separate from the crimes that generate the profit.”

Investigators said more than 2,000 organized crime groups, mainly cocaine and methamphetamine traffickers in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, as well as street gangs, outlaw motorcycle gangs that “extend from coast to coast” and mafia networks operating in Montréal, Toronto and Hamilton, Ont.

“Only 29% of organized crime groups are reported to be involved in money laundering in 2020, but the actual proportion is likely much higher as disguising the origins of illicit funds through money laundering is an essential element of increasing criminals’ usable wealth,” said the report.

Police blamed organized crime groups for an average thirty murders a year.

“More than half of assessed organized crime groups have an interprovincial or international scope with links to 77 other countries, typically the United States, Mexico, Colombia and China.”

“The Canadian criminal landscape is constantly evolving and shifting, presenting challenges to traditional police responses.”

The pandemic did affect some criminal networks, he said.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has created ripples throughout the criminal marketplace affecting the operations of different organized crime groups to varying degrees,” said the report.

“Networks that rely on a fully-functioning national economy such as those involved in money laundering through businesses deemed ‘non-essential’ and on international movement, such as those involved in passenger travel or importation routes, have been severely affected by pandemic-related restrictions.”

“Others whose methods were already well-suited to such imposed restrictions including online criminal activity or the exploitation of commercial transport have continued to operate with little disruption.”

The Bank of Canada in 2020 research said a suspiciously high number of $100 banknotes had vanished from legal circulation in a trend researchers linked to crime and tax avoidance.

“A large share of notes, mostly $100, travels in one direction,” said a Bank study.

“The $100 banknotes have a clearly different behaviour pattern in comparison to other denominations.”