How drug traffickers have their money laundered through Chinese underground banks

2023-11-17 13:00:23

Studies in recent years have repeatedly shown that traces of cocaine can be found on almost every euro note, which is how far the drug has spread in Europe. For Linfei Y., that only helped to a limited extent as an excuse.

Investigators from the Osnabrück main customs office stopped him in spring 2018 on the A 30, in an Audi with a Polish license plate, shortly after the Dutch border. He identified himself as a Chinese citizen living in Prato near Florence. He said he had about 3,000 euros in his wallet, nothing more. But in the glove compartment, the customs officers found 91 50-euro bills, hidden between the pages of the operating manual. And then wanted to know exactly.

They took the A3 to a workshop. There they had the back seat removed. They opened the cover underneath and unscrewed the fuel pump. This allowed them to reach into the tank. One after the other, they pulled 27 shrink-wrapped bundles of money out of the gasoline.

Wads of money hidden in the tank

In total, the customs officers confiscated 781,320 euros from Linfei Y. They handed over a selection of the notes to the “Education and Science Center of the Federal Financial Administration” in Cologne, which concluded in a report: The cocaine residue was “significantly stronger” than usual. The researchers also found THC, i.e. traces of cannabis, on all of the bills examined (except for the 500 euro bills). A comparative study showed that this is not the case with notes that are normally in circulation.

The customs investigators found 27 shrink-wrapped bundles of money in the tank of Linfei Y’s Audi: Image: Osnabrück Police Department

Despite all the cryptocurrencies and financial havens, the following applies in the drug business: Cash is king. Most consumers pay in cash, and producers at the other end of the supply chain, be it in Colombia, Morocco or Afghanistan, also prefer to use dollars or euros. But transporting cash across borders and continents is risky. Many drug dealers therefore rely on professional service providers. In its latest report, Europol writes of a parallel financial system of organized crime. Chinese networks are now particularly popular.

In the USA, investigators have been targeting underground bankers of Chinese origin for several years. There they work primarily for Mexican cartels, which previously smuggled their proceeds from drug sales in American cities into Mexico by the truckload or handed them over to Colombian or Lebanese money laundering professionals. “There has been no other example in the history of organized crime in which an entire business area was taken over without a shot being fired, as in this case,” a retired agent from the US anti-drug agency DEA told the investigative medium Propublica last year. And Chinese networks have not only established themselves in North America. Research by FAZ and MDR shows that they offer their services worldwide. Conversations with police officers, prosecutors and scientists as well as investigation and court files from several countries provide insights into a conspiratorial system to which narcos and mafiosi entrust their millions.