Urgent cooperation needed to fight money laundering and terrorist financing

Source: Interpol (news and events)

VIENNA, Austria – Countries need to urgently step up their efforts to target the huge illicit profits generated by transnational organized crime that facilitate conflicts, fund terrorism, and negatively impact vulnerable populations.

This was the unprecedented call to action from the heads of the FATF, INTERPOL and UNODC in Vienna today, at a high-level Side Event on the first day of the 33rd Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.

By focussing on the proceeds of crime and the illicit financial networks behind them, Member States can more effectively combat and disrupt organized crime networks and enhance the effectiveness of crime prevention efforts.

Disincentivizing criminal activity through targeting illicit profits would also positively impact across all Goals of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, such as inclusive economic growth, financial stability, and strengthened institutions and governance.

“Global financial integrity is critical for financial stability, inclusion, and for peace and security,” said FATF President T. Raja Kumar. “It can only be achieved through the robust and effective implementation of money laundering and terrorist financing standards. The FATF is committed to playing its part and stepping up our work on the cross-cutting activities which enable all serious crime, especially the laundering of the proceeds of crime. We must seize the initiative and collectively implement asset recovery to cut off the lifeblood of criminal enterprise – their money and their assets. This must be a key preventive strategy that all governments must adopt.”

INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock said: “Just as criminals will trade any commodity to generate profits, every avenue must be followed to deprive them of these illicit gains. Choking off the illegal revenue streams is essential in promoting rule of law and protecting vulnerable communities. Action across all sectors and at the global level is needed now, and INTERPOL stands ready to provide whatever support necessary.”

“Money laundering, terrorism financing, and their predicate offences are fuelling instability, violence, and exploitation worldwide. Safeguarding financial integrity is vital to promoting peace and security, driving sustainable development, and shielding the most vulnerable,” said UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly. “UNODC stands ready to work with governments, the private sector and our partners at FATF and INTERPOL to enhance financial and criminal investigations, to dismantle the illegal financial networks that sustain terrorism and transnational organised crime.”

While the three leaders highlighted recent enhancements to FATF’s international standards on anti-money laundering and terrorism financing, they also called for accelerated progress on policy reforms and capacity building ahead of the UN 2026 Crime Congress, to be hosted by the United Arab Emirates.

With financial integrity a key pillar in creating stability, of particular importance is the greater support still required for countries struggling to implement effective anti-money laundering and terrorist financing frameworks.

They also recognised the positive impact of member countries increasingly working with the private sector and civil society to implement joint approaches to fighting financial crime. Operational work through public private partnerships and task forces is accelerating and increasing the effectiveness of global implementation efforts, they said.

Participants at the event, “Taking the Profits out of Crime: Accelerating the Effective Implementation of Anti- Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Standards Globally”, discussed capacity building, the effective implementation of the risk-based approach, multi-sectoral partnerships, and technology as the key accelerators to boost effectiveness in the global fight against financial crime.

UNODC, FATF and INTERPOL will continue this call to action – urging member states to improve their AML/CFT frameworks – through the 2026 Crime Congress.

Report: Pollution crime is highly profitable, organized and harming the planet

Source: Interpol (news and events)

Throughout a series of global law enforcement operations that INTERPOL has coordinated against pollution crime in recent years, a key observation has emerged – that transnational organized crime was likely involved in a number of cases.

The exact nature and implications of organized crime groups’ role in pollution crime on a global level, however, has not been clear enough.

A new INTERPOL report targets this information gap with an in-depth examination of 27 pollution crime case studies shared by law enforcement in INTERPOL member countries. While most of the cases come from European countries, investigations demonstrate that the organized crime-pollution crime nexus is a global phenomenon, involving a wide variety of perpetrators and organizational structures.

Half a billion dollars

Illegal pollution is a highly profitable and serious crime, with devastating consequences for communities, the environment, legitimate businesses and the rule of law. In the cases examined by the INTERPOL report, the proceeds of the pollution offences ranged from USD 175,000 to USD 58 million, corresponding to an average of USD 19.6 million for each case.

The proceeds of the 27 pollution crime cases combined are estimated to amount to half a billion US dollars. Equally alarming are the costs to clean up and decontaminate illegal pollution sites, which ranged from USD 6 million to 37 million (USD 15.6 million on average) according to the cases examined.  

To facilitate pollution offences, perpetrators systematically commit a series of document frauds and financial crimes, including tax evasion and money laundering. In some cases requiring the complicity of public officials, perpetrators also resort to bribery, extortion and fraud.

Transnational networks are often key to pollution offences. In one case, organized crime groups illegally exported municipal waste from the United Kingdom and dumped it in Poland, fraudulently claiming to dispose of the waste in legitimate UK-based sites, as they were paid to do. The illegal dumping resulted in an estimated 30-40 waste fires in Poland.

In Spain, a company imported waste tires from other European countries then re-sold them as second hand tires to countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. This despite the fact that the tires were improperly stored in dangerous conditions and not up to code. The company did not declare importing the tires to avoid taxes and laundered their profits through real estate, vehicles, jewelry and virtual currencies.

The real face of pollution crime

Pollution crime, the report concludes, is often an organized crime, conducted with innovative, adaptive and sophisticated methods, but does not always take the form one might expect. While some cases did involve centralized mafia or gang-style criminal groups, the large majority of suspects were businessmen and women operating under the cover of a legitimate firm, or as a network of individual brokers.

This de-centralized structure reflects the way that much cross-border business is done, involving global value chains in which services are regularly subcontracted across a largely ‘horizontal’ network of economic actors.

Some of the legitimate companies in these networks shift towards illegal business practices and commit pollution offences to increase their profit margins, with or without the knowledge of other companies linked to them.

The picture that emerges is one where different forms of pollution crime often coexist and blend with legitimate operators. This does not, however, make the crime any less organized, or any less damaging.

Making polluting a high-risk crime

A majority of the cases examined by the INTERPOL report were cross-border, underscoring the importance of international police cooperation to combating pollution crime.

Pollution offences have sometimes been characterized as high-profit and low-risk, in part because of the many challenges to policing such crimes and the limited prosecutions registered to date. Common challenges for law enforcement include cooperation gaps between police and environmental regulatory authorities, a lack of specialized training, the low prioritization of pollution enforcement in many countries and legal obstacles when pollution crime is not one of the predicate, or ‘serious’, offences that can be prosecuted under organized crime laws.

To overcome such hurdles, the INTERPOL report recommends attributing greater attention to pollution crime investigations, integrating the tools and techniques used against organized and financial crime. This could be done through multi-disciplinary training of investigators or establishing permanent multi-agency task forces.

Moreover, national enforcement agencies should undertake systematic data collection and analysis on the companies and criminal networks charged with pollution crime in order to conduct intelligence-led operations, focusing on high-value targets.

The strategic report was made possible through financial support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) to INTERPOL’s Environmental Security programme, which supports law enforcement agencies in INTERPOL’s 195 member countries to prevent, detect and disrupt environmental crimes and dismantle the criminal groups behind them.

Learn more about our response to pollution crime on our website.

The devastating impact of illegal gold mining in Latin America

Source: Interpol (news and events)

New INTERPOL analysis for law enforcement shows the clear involvement of organized criminals in illegal gold mining, taking advantage of surging gold prices and leaving severe environmental degradation in their wake.

Gold prices have again risen to multiyear highs in recent months, with the asset seen by many investors as a safe investment in relatively uncertain times. Illegal gold mining has likewise increased over the past decade. A 2016 assessment by INTERPOL and the United Nations Environment Programme estimated illegal mining to account for up to USD 48 billion a year in criminal proceeds.

Latin America is especially affected by this crime area, experiencing one of the world’s largest illegal gold extraction rates, according to INTERPOL’s findings. Its analysis of illicit gold mining in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Peru – as well as the results of regular investigative support to Brazilian law enforcement – highlights how the increase in gold demand has acted as a ‘pull factor’ for criminals in the region, including organized crime groups also involved in human trafficking, human rights abuses and financial crimes.

Illegal gold mining devastates the environment, causing deforestation, biodiversity and habitat loss as well as water, air and soil pollution through the release of toxic chemicals. Local communities also suffer through forced population displacements, corruption, human rights violations and health issues associated with illegal mining.

The high involvement of sophisticated criminal networks in illegal gold mining and the transnational dimension of illegal mining and associated crimes also pose challenges for law enforcement, who sometimes lack the necessary resources to combat this crime threat effectively.

Lining their pockets and destroying the environment

Under the banner of Project Mnya, the INTERPOL analysis was developed by a newly-formed team within the global policing body dedicated to providing analytical, investigative and operational support to member countries combating illegal gold mining.

Funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment, Project Mnya marks the first initiative launched by INTERPOL’s environmental security programme on illegal mining and related crimes. The project has already led to the exchange of new intelligence from ongoing cases between law enforcement in the region and the establishment of national points of contact to facilitate work in this crime area.

Law enforcement in beneficiary countries confirmed interest in enhancing intelligence sharing at the regional and national level. The Attorney General’s Office in Colombia, for instance, reported having direct access to INTERPOL’s secure I-24/7 communications system, allowing for timely information exchange between investigators and the judiciary.

“In the context of COVID-19, illegal gold mining has been lining criminals’ pockets more than ever before, allowing crime groups to funnel money into other illicit activities while destroying the local environment,” said Cindy Buckley, Acting Assistant Director of INTERPOL’s Illicit Markets division.

“The supply chains for illegally-mined gold are transnational in scope, and INTERPOL has a crucial role to play in supporting member countries combating this crime,” Ms Buckley added.

Nearly half the illegal gold mining ‘hotspots’ identified through INTERPOL’s work with law enforcement in Project MNYA countries are located in cross-border areas, demonstrating the importance of international police cooperation in countering criminality.

Multiple law enforcement agencies are also responsible for enforcing and investigating illegal mining in each country, meaning that national inter-agency cooperation and coordination is just as crucial.

INTERPOL’s environmental security programme brings together member countries, international organizations, civil society organizations and the private sector to help dismantle the criminal networks behind environmental crime by providing law enforcement agencies with the tools and expertise they need to protect the environment from being exploited by criminals.

The programme provides investigative support to international cases and targets, coordinates operations, assists member countries in sharing information and conducts analysis into environmental criminal networks.

Download a public version of INTERPOL’s report on illegal mining and associated crimes below.

Operation 30 Days at Sea 3.0 reveals 1,600 marine pollution offences worldwide

Source: Interpol (news and events)

LYON, France – Thousands of suspects, companies and criminal networks engaged in maritime pollution have been detected and investigated in a global INTERPOL-led operation.

Operation 30 Days at Sea 3.0 (1-31 March) saw simultaneous action by 300 agencies across 67 countries resulting in an unprecedented 34,000 inspections at sea and inland waterways, coastal areas and ports to detect marine pollution violations.

Frontline action followed five months of intelligence collection and analysis, enabling the identification of specific hotspots and suspects behind the criminal, deliberate pollution of the world’s waterways.

Preliminary results from the operation’s tactical phase included the detection of 1,600 marine pollution offences, often triggering fines and follow-up investigations across all continents. These include:

  • Nearly 500 illegal acts of pollution committed at sea, including oil discharges, illegal shipbreaking and sulphur emissions from vessels;
  • 1,000 pollution offences in coastal areas and in rivers, including illegal discharges of sewage, mercury, plastics, and other contaminants, leading to serious water contamination which flows into the oceans;
  • 130 cases of waste trafficking through ports.

By using INTERPOL’s wide range of databases and analytical capabilities, countries were able to connect pollution crime with other serious offences such as fraud, corruption, tax evasion, money laundering, piracy, and illegal fishing.

Officers from the Italian Coast Guard inspect waste destined for bulk ships.

Port and environmental protection officers joined forces in Kuwait.

An illegal shipment of metal waste was uncovered in Croatia.

Hazardous metal scraps had been illegally shipped from Europe to Namibia.

Authorities in Malta investigate a derelict vessel.

Indonesian authorities detected 65 oil spills.

The US Coast Guard used drones as part of their surveillance efforts.

Authorities in Ecuador inspect effluent from a water treatment plant.

Onboard inspections in Bolivia.

Waste shipment inspection in Latvia.

With surveillance down, criminals are seizing opportunities

With many enforcement resources being reassigned to tackle the pandemic, criminals have been quick to exploit growing vulnerabilities in environmental security and reduced risk of detection.

Authorities in Indonesia detected 65 oil spills and detained two vessels which tried to evade detection by turning off geolocation systems and concealing their national flags.

A major criminal network trafficking plastic waste between Europe and Asia was exposed, triggering cooperation between authorities from both regions. So far, 22 suspects have been arrested and thousands of tonnes of waste have been prevented from being illegally shipped to Asia, where it would have likely been dumped, contaminating soils and generating considerable marine litter.

Several countries from Europe, Asia and Africa reported illegal shipments of contaminated or mixed metal waste falsely declared as metal scraps. In one case, the Italian Coast Guard seized and prevented 11,000 tonnes of metal scraps mixed with plastic, rubber, mineral oil and other contaminants from being loaded onto bulk carriers headed for Turkey. Namibia, the Philippines and Croatia also reported cases of illegal waste shipments from Europe.

Growing trends included COVID-19 disposable items such as masks and gloves, with 13 cases involving medical waste opened as a result of the operation.

With the value of gold on the rise, agencies across Africa, Central and South America worked to track illegal mining, which often results in devastating contamination due to mercury discharges.

“Although this is the third edition of 30 Days at Sea, it is never the same exercise.” Jürgen Stock, INTERPOL Secretary General

INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock said: “The threat of pollution crime is constantly evolving, endangering the air we breathe, our water and soil. Although this is the third edition of 30 Days at Sea, it is never the same exercise.

“It is thanks to a global yet agile network that we have seen the number of inspections more than double since the first edition: a clear sign that the international community will not stand for criminal attacks on our environment.”

INTERPOL will assist member countries in their follow-up operations and intelligence analysis with support from its Pollution Crime Working Group.

Joining forces for greater impact

With INTERPOL’s Environmental Security Programme coordinating the operation globally, Europol and FRONTEX (European Border and Coast Guard Agency) provided crucial support by coordinating the European leg of 30 Days at Sea 3.0, as part of the EMPACT action plan on environmental crime.

Europol’s Executive Director Catherine De Bolle said: “Marine pollution is a serious threat, which endangers not only the environment but our health and in the long run our global economy. Criminals do not care about the environment; they do not think of tomorrow, but only of increasing their profits on the back of our society. Consolidated law enforcement efforts such as 30 Days at Sea are critical to tackle these borderless crimes and protect our environmental heritage for generations to come.”

“Environmental crime is one of many criminal activities Frontex targets as part of our mission as the European Border and Coast Guard Agency. This is our contribution to the protection of the environment. I’m proud that, as part of 30 Days at Sea, Frontex aerial and maritime assets monitored nearly 1 000 vessels,” said Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri.

All three editions of Operation 30 Days at Sea have been carried out with funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).

Participating countries

Participating countries: Angola, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Cote d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea Bissau, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Liberia, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Namibia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor Leste, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vietnam, Zimbabwe

91st INTERPOL General Assembly

Source: Interpol (news and events)

 

The General Assembly is INTERPOL’s supreme governing body and comprises delegates appointed by the governments of our member countries.

It meets once a year and takes all the major decisions affecting general policy, the resources needed for international cooperation, working methods, finances and programmes of activities. These decisions are in the form of resolutions.

INTERPOL’s Centenary

2023 marks the 100-year anniversary of the Organization, and this General Assembly is being hosted in Vienna, Austria – in recognition of the fact that this is the city where INTERPOL was created in 1923.

Bringing together chiefs of police and senior officials from around the world, the event will also round off a year of celebrations for our member countries, that have included taking the INTERPOL flag to landmark destinations such as the summit of Mount Everest.

During the four-day conference that runs from 28 November to 1 December, senior police officials from around the world will address current and emerging threats, including the significant growth of transnational organized crime.

INTERPOL has returned to Vienna for the centenary police conference.

The 91st General Assembly is focusing on bridging INTERPOL’s past and future.

INTERPOL’s General Assembly is taking place in Vienna, a century after the organization was founded in the Austrian capital.

More than 1,000 police and law enforcement leaders from over 160 countries are participating in this year’s General Assembly.

International cooperation is vital to fight against crime which today knows no border, said Karl Nehammer, Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria.

Franz Ruf, Director General for Public Security, Republic of Austria.

“No country or region should be left behind in the fight against crime,” said INTERPOL President Ahmed Naser al-Raisi.

The 2023 General Assembly has brought together law enforcement leaders from the organization’s 196 member countries.

Delegates are set to discuss ways to leverage technology and new cooperation mechanisms at the 91st General Assembly.

The 2023 General brought together law enforcement leaders from the organization’s 196 member countries.

Agenda

This session of the General Assembly will include panels and presentations on the following themes:

  • Member country activities to promote a century of learning, collaboration and innovation.
  • Emerging trends, operational impact and preparedness for the future.
  • Police cooperation and discussions on the use of emerging technologies by law enforcement.
  • A review of critical global crime threats facing policing today, including transnational organized crime, environmental crime and preventing the circulation of child sexual abuse material
  • A global dialogue among regional policing organizations to enhance and maintain strategic and operational coordination.
  • Strengthening frameworks for cooperation such as governance and rules on the processing of data.
  • Approving budget and activities for 2024
  • Operational and strategic partnerships with governmental, non-governmental and UN partners
  • The next generation – recruiting and retaining talent and diversity at the General Secretariat.

24th INTERPOL Asian Regional Conference

Source: Interpol (news and events)

7 – 9 February 2023  | Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

The Asian Regional Conference brings together Heads of Police and police cooperation bodies in the region to discuss specific crime-related problems, as well as assess the state of police cooperation and the fight against transnational crime.

Key issued to be considered during the Asian gathering include:

  • Financial crime
  • Human trafficking
  • Cybercrime
  • Terrorism

INTERPOL network renews commitment to protecting victims from global crime threats

Source: Interpol (news and events)

LYON, France – To address the increasing logistical, operational and technological sophistication of transnational organized crime, INTERPOL’s Heads of NCB conference has ended with delegates approving a series of conclusions to boost the law enforcement response.

Expanding access to I-24/7, INTERPOL’s secure global police communications network, to specialized law enforcement units and border control points, and sharing more criminal data via the Organization’s 19 databases were highlighted as key.

Increased use of INTERPOL’s policing capabilities, such as the Global Rapid Intervention of Payments (I-GRIP) stop-payment mechanism to intercept the proceeds of cyber-enabled financial fraud was also endorsed.

Intercepting criminal proceeds

Since the launch of I-GRIP in 2022, the Organization has helped member countries intercept more than USD 500 million in criminal proceeds.

The need for more data exchanges on terrorist organizations, their support mechanisms, and any links to organized crime was underlined, as well as sharing modus operandi linked to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and improvised explosive materials and incidents.

INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock said:

“It is simple – more data shared via INTERPOL equals more results for police across our 196 member countries.

“To address the complexity of today’s transnational organized crime threat, global law enforcement cooperation to ensure that the right information is in the right place at the right time is more important than ever.

“This meeting has provided new impetus for our National Central Bureaus which play a critical role in the global security architecture.”

Protecting children

To better protect vulnerable members of society, NCBs were also encouraged to make greater use of INTERPOL’s International Child Sex Exploitation (ICSE) database to share intelligence, identify offenders and safeguard victims, as well as Green Notices to warn about sexual predators.

INTERPOL is the only international organization with a global network of mandatorily appointed data protection officers. In support of data protection principles such as lawfulness, quality, transparency and accountability, fostering this network to further strengthen trust and efficiency in global policing was also endorsed by the Heads of NCBs conference.

INTERPOL – A united front against transnational organized crime

Source: Interpol (news and events)

LYON, France – Strengthening INTERPOL’s global network to combat the threat of transnational organized crime is the focus of the annual Heads of National Central Bureaus (NCBs) meeting this week.

Building on the five priority actions outlined in the Vienna Declaration, 321 police officials from 136 countries attending the conference will identify initiatives to expand access to INTERPOL’s global databases to encourage greater operational criminal data sharing.

In addition to panel discussions during the plenary session, delegates will also take part in round tables for more focused regional discussions on threats including cyber-enabled financial fraud, online child sexual exploitation and terrorism.

INTERPOL President Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi said:

“We are 196 members strong, and our power lies in our continued commitment to intelligence sharing and international partnership.

“Providing police with the tools they need to fight crime together is essential. As we look to the future, NCBs are more vital than ever, playing an essential role in the success of the organization’s most critical operations.”

Secretary General Jürgen Stock highlighted a number of operational highlights from the past 12 months, including Operation Storm Makers II, targeting human trafficking and migrant smuggling linked to cyber scam centres, and Operation Haechi IV against online financial crime which resulted in the seizure of USD 300 million worth of assets across 34 countries.

“Terrorism remains global, mobile, while organized crime continues to expand across continents and across markets,” said Secretary General Stock.

“That is why we must continue to prepare and respond to those criminal threats in a coordinated and targeted manner at the national, regional and global levels through our NCBs.

“Each piece of information, shared or withheld, can mean the difference between an arrest and a tragedy of global proportions.”

NCBs are a country’s focal point for all INTERPOL activities, connecting national law enforcement with other countries, and with the General Secretariat headquarters in Lyon, via a secure global police communications network.

In 2023 alone, INTERPOL NCBs exchanged more than 18 million messages and queried the Organization’s global databases nearly eight billion times – equating to over 250 searches every second.

INTERPOL welcomes new DNA legislation in Belgium

Source: Interpol (news and events)

LYON, France – Belgium has enacted a new law considerably boosting its ability to solve cases of missing or unidentified deceased persons.

Until now, officials in Belgium were restricted from sharing DNA profiles to international databases for criminal missing persons investigations, essentially limiting their ability to find answers abroad.

The new legislation explicitly allows for profiles collected in Belgium to be searched and stored in INTERPOL’s DNA and I-Familia databases for cases of missing persons, relatives of missing persons and unidentified human remains. It will also enable the use of more systematic searches, adding a new layer of cooperation and ensuring all possible avenues have been explored.

“This new law is an important achievement. It not only sends a clear message to other countries looking to evolve their policing practices and benefit from increased information exchange, but more significantly it will also help get answers for families,” said INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock.

Dr. Pierre Van Renterghem, Director of the National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology (left) and INTERPOL Executive Committee Vice-President Peter De Buysscher (right)

Welcoming the legislation, Director of International Police Cooperation with the Belgian Federal Police and INTERPOL Executive Committee Vice-President Peter De Buysscher said, “Amendments can and should be made to national DNA legislation – it’s an inevitable part of innovation and globalization. This change to the law will bring a global aspect to national investigations.”

With the new database connections now in place via I-24/7, INTERPOL’s secure communications system, additional data is starting to flow between the National Central Bureau in Brussels and the General Secretariat.

Disrupting a Grandoreiro malware operation

Source: Interpol (news and events)

LYON, France – In January this year, Brazilian authorities announced the arrest of five administrators behind a Grandoreiro banking trojan operation.

Considered a major cybersecurity threat across Spanish-speaking countries since 2017, Grandoreiro malware is introduced through phishing emails impersonating recognized organizations such as courts or telecom and energy companies.

Once in, the malware tracks keyboard inputs, simulates mouse activity, shares screens, and displays deceptive pop-ups, collecting data such as usernames, operating system information, device runtime and most importantly, bank identifiers.

With full control over victims’ bank accounts, criminals empty them, sending funds through a money mule network to launder the illicit proceeds before transferring the funds to Brazil.

The organization behind the malware is thought to have defrauded victims of more than EUR 3.5 million, however, according to CaixaBank several failed attempts could have yielded more than EUR 110 million for the criminal organization.

Brazil and Spain leverage INTERPOL’s network and expertise

Between 2020 and 2022, as part of independent national cybercrime investigations, Brazil and Spain collected Grandoreiro malware samples. When they both turned to INTERPOL for support in analysing the material, INTERPOL’s Cybercrime unit took on a coordinating role, launching an operation and calling on partners Trend Micro, Kaspersky, Group-IB and Scitum.

By August 2023, analytical reports had identified matches between samples, allowing investigators to close in on the organized crime group. Following a series of coordination meetings, Brazil carried out house searches across five states, arresting five programmers and operators behind the banking malware.

Emphasizing the importance of a collective approach, Craig Jones, Director of INTERPOL’s Cybercrime unit, said: “This operational success vividly underscores the importance of sharing intelligence through INTERPOL, and why we are committed to acting as a bridge between public and private sectors. It also sets the stage for further cooperation in the region.”

INTERPOL continues to support Brazil and Spain, as well as other countries, as investigations are ongoing.