John Culatto
GIBRALTAR shared about what it is doing to fight money laundering and human trafficking with countries of the Mediterranean at a United Nations conference in Egypt recently.
Director of the Gibraltar Financial Intelligence Unit (GFIU), Edgar Lopez, was a guest speaker and moderator at a UN Drugs and Crime conference focusing on the Middle East and North Africa.
The conference, held on September 4-6, brought together 70 law enforcement and financial crime experts from Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia.
Lopez explained the Project Nexus outreach programme on money laundering and the new local partnership with banks, police and customs to fight financial crime.
He moderated a session on migrant smuggling and trafficking of persons in cooperation with Middle Eastern and North African authorities.
Lopez explained that although Gibraltar was a small place, it was doing a lot to fight financial crime.
“Sharing Gibraltar’s efforts with countries that are affected by human trafficking and migrant smuggling is something that we are keen in promoting,” Lopez said.
“But it was equally useful to hear the challenges faced by other jurisdictions where we can all learn to make improvements,” he added.
Gibraltar has taken huge strides to fight money laundering and financial crime after being targeted by tax haven accusations from neighbouring Spain.
“As a finance centre and located at the crossroads of the Western Mediterranean route, we have a unique perspective migrant smuggling and our ability to coordinate intelligence effectively is crucial to combat one of the most profitable crimes in the world,” Lopez concluded.
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