Across Canada, transnational organized crime, hostile foreign states, underground banking networks, professional money launderers and economic influence operations increasingly rely upon the same financial infrastructure to move wealth, acquire strategic assets, evade sanctions, corrupt institutions and expand geopolitical influence. This is not simply organized crime. Nor is it merely foreign interference. It is economic warfare conducted through financial systems.
Money laundering is treated as a banking issue, trade fraud as a customs issue, foreign interference as an intelligence issue and tax evasion as a CRA issue. No single agency is responsible for understanding how they all connect.
Traditional anti-money laundering systems were built to identify suspicious bank transfers.
Today’s criminal enterprises increasingly bypass those systems altogether: trade invoices replace wire transfers, underground banking replaces conventional remittance systems, mirror swaps settle transactions without funds crossing borders, cryptocurrency accelerates settlement across jurisdictions, commercial imports and exports disguise criminal proceeds, and real estate preserves illicit wealth.
In many cases, the dirty money never actually leaves the country where it was generated. Equivalent value simply appears somewhere else. The transaction disappears into legitimate commerce. Our laws continue to follow money. Modern criminal enterprises follow value.
British Columbia became vulnerable to money laundering through casinos, luxury vehicles, real estate, opaque corporate structures and underground banking.
Modern money laundering is no longer primarily about moving money. It is about moving value.
Chinese underground banking networks, trade-based money laundering, professional laundering organizations, nominee ownership, cryptocurrency, trade fraud, shell companies, strategic land acquisitions and foreign influence operations are no longer isolated activities. They are interconnected components of an integrated financial ecosystem that enables organized crime, sanctions evasion, fentanyl trafficking, corruption, foreign interference and, increasingly, national security threats.
https://www.todayville.com/canadas-...le-will-be-fought-through-money-not-missiles/
The author a former RCMP superintendent. For myself I have no immediate solution beyond bringing public attention to the matter and feeling abhorrent of the situation.