20230525 - Ireland at the centre of an international money laundering operation

This article provides a broad overview of money laundering issues relating to Ireland. It is a good authoritative source if you wished to drive home to your colleagues the view of garda on money laundering.

Ireland at the centre of an international money laundering operation in which global criminal gangs are buying millions of euro of legitimate products to mask stolen money.

Detective Chief Superintendent Pat Lordan, the head of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) said that his detectives have seen significant successes against organised crime groups but that more work and adequate resourcing is needed to continue that trend.

“We’ve increased detections, charged and convicted more people – we’ve increased preventative methods – taken on organised crime groups.

“A lot of countries feel that it is better to not know about this because then they look okay but my view is that no country is okay in this realm – you have to dig in, find the crime and deal with it.

“Ireland is in a good place dealing with money laundering crimes but I am concerned about the new methods that have appeared in recent times,” he said.
​
Lordan said that one key method that has recently become prevalent, not jut in Ireland but across Europe, is “trade-based money laundering”.

Mark Bishop Head of Intelligence Operations with the National Crime Agency (NCA) in the UK spoke of the NCA’s efforts to rid London of Russian oligarch money laundering. 

​www.thejournal.ie/money-laundering-pat-lordan-6077558-May2023/