Police in 26 countries have arrested 422 people in a global operation against money laundering, and identified more than 4,000 others who have served as "
financial mules
", Europol announced Wednesday (December 2nd).
To read also: François Di Pasquali among the “most wanted” of Europol
Carried out between September and November, in 24 European countries as well as in Australia and the United States, the operation led to the opening of more than 1,500 investigations, said the European police agency.
It detected nearly 5,000 fraudulent transactions and avoided losses of up to 33.5 million euros, said Europol, which is based in The Hague.
The agency also identified more than 220 “
financial mule recruiters
” during the operation, coordinated by Europol and supported by the European Union Banking Federation, Western Union and more than 500 other financial institutions and banks.
These "
financial mules
" are individuals recruited, most of the time without their knowledge, by criminal organizations which practice money laundering in order to conceal the origin of "
ill-gotten
"
money
, Europol explained.
"
Without knowing that they are engaging in criminal activity, and duped by the promise of easy money, mules transfer stolen funds from one account to another, often from different countries,
" the agency added.
In a similar operation last year, Europol announced the arrest of more than 200 people.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/KAMEVPDOXBG7TIMQFEJC6QI7DU.JPG)
