- Money laundering accounts for up to 2.7% of global Gross Domestic Product each year, depriving governments of some $600 billion, according to the High-Level Panel on Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity International to achieve the 2030 Agenda (FACTI Panel).
Mexico City, November 05, 2024 – In the context of the International Day for the Prevention of Money Laundering, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, with the support of the Embassy of Canada in Mexico, gathered key actors from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to promote joint actions in the prevention, identification and prosecution of this transnational crime.
UNODC Mexico and UNODC ROPAN held the regional dialogues “From Disruption to Construction”, where experts from the Financial Intelligence Units of these countries discussed best practices in the investigation and prevention of money laundering and human trafficking, justice against money laundering in the region, among other issues. Among their conclusions, they highlighted:
- The importance of international cooperation for the investigation and dismantling of transnational organized crime groups.
- The need to create specialized inter-institutional groups to prevent and combat human trafficking and money laundering networks.
- The changes in the way these crimes are investigated at the regional level and how to focus intelligence on criminality and on patrimonial and financial issues.
- The participation of 10 institutions from the region and the attendance of more than 350 people in these dialogues.
“The investigation of money laundering is a decisive action to combat organized crime and corruption. At UNODC we promoted the dialogues ‘From Disruption to Construction’ to foster national and regional institutional coordination”, said UNODC Mexico Representative, Mr. Kristian Hölge.
“Money laundering and human trafficking are strongly linked and affect the safety and rights of many people. Canada joins efforts with Mexico and Central America to prevent and combat these transnational crimes, promoting coordination between investigative agencies, civil society and the private sector,” added the Canadian Ambassador to Mexico, Mr. Graeme C. Clark.
About Project Disruption
To counter this crime, UNODC is implementing Project Disruption with the support of the Government of Canada’s Anti-Crime Capacity Building Program (ACCBP). This project seeks to promote coordination among the main actors involved in the fight against human trafficking and money laundering in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador through the identification of crimes and inter-institutional coordination.
This project has achieved the following results:
- Intra-institutional coordination between the areas that investigate human trafficking and money laundering.
- The realization of working groups in 5 states to identify typologies, dynamics and patterns in Mexico.
- The identification of 15 joint typologies for the crimes of human trafficking and money laundering, as well as the updating of two typologies published by the Financial Intelligence Unit.