Narco subs, drug cartels and Canada – new threats on the horizon to international security

Tweet Narco subs In the last few months, an increasing number of so-called narco subs, also called drug subs, have been intercepted in international waters by law enforcement (“LE“). A narco sub is usually a self-propelled semi-submersible (“SPSS“) used by drug traffickers to transport large quantities of illegal drugs for cartels to an international market. […]

Canadian accused of money laundering as part of sophisticated lawyer-concocted shell operation to hide proceeds of crime, extradited to New York and indicted

Tweet A Canadian charged with money laundering, Enzo Vettesse, was extradited to New York last week and a 2013 sealed indictment against him, was unsealed. On March 18, 2013, Montrealer Vettesse was caught in New York transporting a suitcase filled with US$245,000 in cash and confessed to US law enforcement that he was traveling with […]

Q & A on Extreme Vetting

Tweet The Executive Orders issued by the US Government for immigration and subsequent statements by the administration indicate that the Department of Homeland Security is starting a process of “extreme vetting” of prospective immigrants, refugee claimants and non-immigrant visa applicants. From a terrorism perspective, here is a Q&A about “extreme vetting.” What is “extreme vetting”? […]

US President signs Financial Crime Executive Order to, among other things, bring foreigners to “Face Justice in the US”

Tweet Come Face US Justice On Thursday, the US President signed an executive order to protect the US from transnational criminal organizations and, inter alia, to tackle financial crimes. The executive order is entitled “Enforcing Federal Law with Respect to Transnational Criminal Organizations and Preventing International Trafficking.” Its purpose is to dismantle international organized crime. […]

Trial of PEP from Equatorial Guinea for money laundering in France

Tweet Equatorial Guinea trial Teodorin Obiang, the son of the President of Equatorial Guinea, is being prosecuted in France for allegedly laundering the proceeds of corruption in France. Mr. Obiang is also the Vice-President of Equatorial Guinea and is a politically exposed person. His trial is scheduled for June 2017. He is accused of bringing […]

Money laundering charge a sufficient ground for refusing refugee protection in Canada

Tweet In a not-often cited decision from 2011, the Federal Court of Canada upheld a decision of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada denying a foreign national refugee protection in Canada for serious criminality based on money laundering charges even though the foreign national was never convicted of money laundering. The facts of the […]

A banker’s update on terrorist financing and money laundering from the US Committee on Homeland Security

Tweet Summary of the Updates The US House Committee on Homeland Security released a number of updates and received testimony on the status of terrorist financing, terrorism and money laundering in the last few weeks with some interesting developments relevant to banks in terms of changes in terrorist financing typologies that should be added to […]

New US law brands journalists and humanitarian aid workers as terrorist risk

Tweet In this story in Quartz, we explore how a new US law, HR158, the Visa Waiver Program Improvement Amendment Act 2015, will result in journalists and humanitarian aid works, and many others being branded a terrorist risk for visiting Iraq, Syria, Iran and the Sudan, and how the new law will affect the ability […]

Is there a terrorism risk for Canada in accepting 25,000 refugees?

Tweet Terrorist risks for refugees There appears to be a debate that has the potential to escalate in this country in respect of whether there are risks for Canada in taking in 25,000 Syrian refugees. No decision is ever risk-free. The decision to accept Syrian refugee is no different – it is not risk free. […]

A difficult issue facing the refugee crisis – the fake Syrian refugee

Tweet Complicated Growing Use of Fake Syrian Passports According to several recent news reports, many refugees and migrants entering, or who have entered, the EU are doing so with false Syrian passports, creating what may be the biggest mass fraud of our time by sheer volume. There are terrorism risks that threaten international security because […]