According to an Operational Alert from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), criminal groups are utilizing online gambling sites and related payment processors to launder money generated from fentanyl manufacturing and distribution.
In suspicious transaction reports, it was noted that recognized fentanyl traffickers often transferred funds obtained from several incoming email money transfers to gambling websites and subsequently received payments back from related payment processors located in Malta, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
It is believed that people are adding and taking out money at online casinos to make it appear as if they are placing bets and earning profits. Even though Gaming News Canada noted, it remains uncertain whether those gambling sites are lawful or prohibited.
The Operational Alert stems from collaborative efforts among FINTRAC, Canada’s financial intelligence agency, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in the U.S., and the Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera in Mexico. The three units collaborated to establish the North American Drug Dialogue Illicit Financing Working Group to create money laundering indicators associated with the importation, production, and distribution of illegal synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and assist law enforcement inquiries.
Information from businesses that provide alerts regarding this activity will generate actionable financial intelligence to aid in investigations and prosecutions.
Operation Alert is associated with Project Guardian, initiated in 2018, which is a broader public-private collaboration spearheaded by CIBC alongside other financial intelligence units, law enforcement bodies, and private sector individuals to combat money laundering related to the import, production, and distribution of illegal synthetic opioids.
The FINTRAC report indicated that organized crime syndicates are “importing or redirecting crucial precursor chemicals and laboratory apparatus from China and various Asian nations for the creation of illicit synthetic opioids.”
The Operational Alert was created after examining 5,000 reports of suspicious transactions involving fentanyl and illegal synthetic opioids collected from 2020 to 2023, along with data from other financial intelligence agencies, insights from governmental and non-governmental organizations both domestic and international, and open-source information to confirm suspicious trends, patterns, and signs.
"We are committed to working with our domestic partners and North American allies to protect our communities and our citizens from the scourge of fentanyl and other illegal synthetic opioids that is being fuelled by transnational organized crime,” said Sarah Paquet, Director and Chief Executive Officer, FINTRAC.
“We have shown with Project Guardian that, by following the money and leveraging the power of financial intelligence, we can effectively target, disrupt and dismantle the organized criminal networks that profit from this insidious illicit activity and threaten the safety and security of Canadians and North Americans.”
During 2023-24, FINTRAC’s intelligence supported 266 significant investigations along with numerous individual probes at municipal, provincial, and federal levels throughout Canada and on an international scale.
According to a statement from FINTRAC, these criminal groups are utilizing "darknet marketplaces and virtual currencies" to globally distribute and traffic fentanyl and other illicit synthetic opioids, "alongside various conventional methods."
