By Paul O’Donoghue, Senior Correspondent
ONE of America’s most senior anti-financial crime officials has called on banks and payments firms to help identify fentanyl trafficking.
Guy Ficco, the Chief of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (CI), said close links between law enforcement and industry are needed to stop the spread of the deadly opioids.
“By incorporating our financial industry partners into the fight against fentanyl trafficking, we are better equipped to identify suspicious financial transactions,” he said.
Co-operation between public and private organizations is one of the topics which Mr Ficco is set to explore at the upcoming ‘International Anti-Financial Crime Summit 2024’. Chief Ficco is one of the speakers at the event, which will be held in London on October 9. More details and registration available HERE.
Mr Ficco also said that industry and law enforcement links would help dismantle criminal organisations “that attempt to poison our communities”.
He was speaking at the latest event in the Regional Outreach to Educate Communities on the Threat of Fentanyl (PROTECT) series, a joint initiative between the CI and FinCEN, the AML arm of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
“Our meeting marked the sixth PROTECT event we’ve co hosted throughout the country,” Mr Ficco said.
“CI will continue to assist our law enforcement partners by providing our financial
investigative expertise to track these illicit financial transactions.”
FinCEN and CI launched the PROTECT series as part of Treasury’s Counter-Fentanyl Strike Force.
They are now holding information exchange sessions in U.S. cities that are highly impacted by the opioid epidemic.
To date, PROTECT events have been held in Boston, Tucson, Miami, Portland, and Denver.
The sixth event was held in New York.
“3,124 New Yorkers died from drug overdoses during 12 months ending in March 2024,” FinCEN said.
“Of those overdose deaths, 2,405 involved synthetic opioids, principally illicitly manufactured fentanyl.”
FinCEN said it wanted to remind financial institutions to report suspicious activity which could be related to the trafficking of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.
“FinCEN encourages financial institutions to review its August 2019 and June 2024 alerts on these topics,” it said.
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