Royal Bank Of Canada

Overall anti-terrorism cooperation with Canada is excellent, and stands as a model of how the US and another nation can work together on terrorism issues. The relationship is exemplified by the US-Canadian Bilateral Consultative Group on Counterterrorism Cooperation, or BCG, which meets annually to review international terrorist trends and to plan ways to intensify joint counterterrorist efforts. BCG subgroups meet continually to carry out specific projects and exercises. Established in 1988, the BCG builds on a long history of mutual cooperation and complements numerous other bilateral fora that address law enforcement and immigration issues. All of these bilateral mechanisms have continued to grow and improve, especially in the wake of two significant arrests: the December 1999 arrest in Washington State of Usama Bin Ladin associate Ahmed Ressam, and the March 1998 arrest in Canada of Saudi national Hani Al-Sayegh in connection with the Khubar Towers bombing. Under the US-Canada Terr ... [Read More]

F) Canada, Mexico, and Central America

Arrests. An intense Mexican law enforcement offensive throughout 2001 resulted in the arrest of 8, 527 persons on drug-related charges, of which 8, 365 were Mexican nationals. The GOM intensified its effort in locating and arresting narcotics traffickers from major cartels after the January escape of narcotics kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera from Puente Grande maximum-security prison in Guadalajara. For example:In May 2001, the ex-governor of Quintana Roo, Mario Villanueva Madrid was arrested after a two-year manhunt. Villanueva reputedly used his governorship to facilitate the transshipment of drugs and to launder drug money. He is in prison awaiting prosecution. In June, Alcides Ramon Magana (aka El Metro), was arrested in Tabasco by the military. He operated a cell for the Carrillo Fuentes organization (AFO) transshipping tons of cocaine into Mexico, allegedly under the protection of Villanueva Madrid. In March, an AFO cell headed by Rigoberto Llanez ... [Read More]

V. Country Narratives -- Countries A through G

Cyprus is a destination country for women trafficked from Eastern and Central Europe for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Traffickers who forced women into prostitution continued to fraudulently recruit victims for work as dancers in cabarets and nightclubs on short-term "artiste" visas, for work in pubs and bars on employment visas, or for illegal work on tourist or student visas. There was increasing evidence of Chinese women being trafficked for sexual exploitation in Cyprus. The Government of Cyprus does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Cyprus made some progress in its anti-trafficking efforts over the past year. The new police anti-trafficking unit produced successful results and showed vigilance in combating the problem. Government recognition of the problem improve ... [Read More]

US Dept of State

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M) Money Laundering and Financial Crimes

The following are summaries of the most significant priority issues:Refocus Efforts of High Intensity Financial Crime Areas (HIFCAs). HIFCAs are special, high-risk areas or sectors where law enforcement will concentrate its resources and energy to combat money laundering. The 2001 Strategy mandated that the HIFCA task forces become operational and conduct investigations designed to result in indictments, convictions, and seizures, rather than focus primarily on intelligence gathering. Each of the six HIFCA Task Forces is now actively working cases. HIFCA Task Forces are composed of, and draw upon, all relevant federal, state, and local agencies. The Departments of Treasury and Justice jointly supervise the HIFCA Task Forces, and the 2001 Strategy primarily tasks the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) and JusticeТs Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section to develop an advanced money laundering training program to enhance the HIFCA Task ForcesТ abili ... [Read More]

Department of State Washington File: Text: U.S. Shares Forfeited Assets from Crimes with Three Countries

The Government of Switzerland provided assistance in two separate cases, which resulted in asset forfeiture sharing of over $500,000. Investigations into the illegal activities of Michael Norton and his company Kona Kai Farms showed he imported inexpensive Central American Coffee and sold it as expensive Kona Coffee. During the course of the investigation, two Swiss bank accounts were discovered and linked to the illegal scheme. This forfeiture occurred as a result of the Government of Switzerland permitting Norton to voluntarily repatriate to the U.S. the illegal proceeds, in lieu of commencing its own forfeiture action. ... [Read More]

Saint Kitts and Nevis (08/04)

St. Kitts and Nevis is a popular American tourist destination. In 1999, over 40% of the 84,000 stay-over visitors were from the U.S. The majority of the 143,800 yacht and cruiseship passengers also were from the U.S. In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, tourism declined by approximately 9%, according to American Airlines officials. Government officials cite the loss of airline connections, including those of U.S. carriers, between the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis and the U.S., Canada, and Europe as the critical factor. After 9/11 both U.S.-based and regional carriers have reduced the number of flights to the Federation. The number of "stay-over" visitors to the islands suffered a 10% falloff, and even though cruiseship arrivals increased, this situation remains unstable. The tourism situation improved slightly in 2002, with the number of tourist visitors totaling 243,198, a majority of these from within the Caribbean, followed closely by arrivals from the U.S. Visitor expe ... [Read More]

International Narcotics Control Strategy Reports

FINANCIAL CRIMES AND MONEY LAUNDERINGMONEY LAUNDERINGOVERVIEWIn 1992, the major trends affecting money laundering policy were: (1) further sophistication of money laundering practices; (2) greater investment of drug and other illicit proceeds into established businesses, both to conceal money movements and to capitalize on illicit profits; (3) the internationalization of money laundering networks whose operations involve an ever larger number of countries and territories, regardless of their importance as financial centers or as drug producing or transit countries; and (4) the intensified involvement of the Sicilian Mafia and other criminal organizations in Europe, Asia and the Western Hemisphere who comingle proceeds from many crimes to confound investigators, and are now acting as brokers for funds unrelated to their own trafficking activities. These trends have made it more difficult to differentiate between drug-related money laundering and other forms of illegal money m ... [Read More]

Canada, Mexico, and Central America

Canada I. Summary The Government of Canada had an active and productive year in counternarcotics in 2004. The national "Canadian Addiction Survey" that was made public in November indicated that substance abuse among Canadians has significantly increased over the past decade, especially among youth. While alcohol and cannabis remained the most commonly abused substances, there were worrisome trends in abuse of other illicit substances. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) estimates that the overall drug trade in Canada generates criminal proceeds in excess of $3 billion at the wholesale level and $13.5 billion at the street level. Marijuana production is a thriving industry in Canada with production estimated by the RCMP at somewhere between 960 and 2400 metric tons. This is a particular concern of the USG because of in ... [Read More]