Anti-money launderer’s top catch
On October 27, 2006, Australian investigators announced the largest prosecution of money laundering in Australian criminal history, having smashed a crime syndicate and having crippled 5 other gangs. The whole investigation took 17 months.
In 3 days, a taskforce led by the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) has charged 57 people who purpotedly laundered USD 93 million and carried out for drug deals and other crime. detectives seized about USD 30 million worth of heroin, ice and cocaine, five guns, nine vehicles aa well as more than USD 2 million in cash.
ACC chief executive Alistair Milroy says the taskforce was established in March 2005 in order to investigate the money laundering activities of various crime syndicates. The taskforce includes Australian Federal Police (AFP), Australian Customs Service, Victoria and NSW Police, Australian Taxation Office, NSW Crime Commission and AUSTRAC.
The investigation was successful and uncovered a alleged principal money laundering syndicate by means of which criminals had sent their money overseas to legitimise it.
While monitoring this money laundering syndicate, detectives succeeded to identify at least 5 other criminal gangs involved in money laundering and drug trafficking.
It is worth repeating that this was the largest ever prosecution of money laundering in the history of Australia, which proved a successful approach to tracing down organised gangs.