Drugs and crime chief says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutions
Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the
United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the
Observer.
Antonio
Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen
evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only liquid
investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse
last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs
profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result.
This
will raise questions about crime's influence on the economic system at
times of …
