WhatsApp chat used to send cash for crime and extremism

What the report says

A BBC World News investigation, working with the European Broadcasting Union network, says a 532-member WhatsApp group was used to coordinate large cash transfers across borders with little or no paper trail. The group, called “Traders of Greater Europe,” was active from late February to December 2022 and appears to have handled payments for clients moving money to cities including Birmingham and London, as well as to other countries outside Europe. The reporting says the system relied on hawala, a longstanding informal transfer method that can move funds through trusted brokers without conventional bank records.

According to the BBC’s account, the material was uncovered after a Belgian investigation into money laundering and terror financing. Belgian authorities found evidence that some transfers were linked to Islamic State recipients in Syria, including money intended to support militants’ families in detention camps. A Belgian magistrate described the scale of the activity as unusually large, and messages on the phone of a key suspect reportedly revealed thousands of transaction records and identity documents used to identify payments.

The BBC also said similar hawala networks have been connected to people smuggling, drug trafficking and other organised crime in several European countries. In Austria, separate cases have led to convictions over a hawala operation used in migrant smuggling. The broader significance is that informal cash networks can serve legitimate remittance needs, but investigators say they are also exploited by criminal groups because they can evade standard banking controls and reporting systems.