A recent trend in Australia sees organized crime groups using luxury goods like watches and handbags as a way to launder money and trade illicit goods. Police busts have uncovered vast collections of high-end items, demonstrating the growing role of these goods in the criminal world.
When police raided the gang’s stash house, hidden inside a row of housing commission units, they expected to find money and drugs.
Acting Sergeant Richard Smith, who heads a Victoria Police team focused on retail theft in Melbourne’s CBD, says major burglaries targeting high-end stores often have links to organised crime, with luxury goods now exchanged for drugs. “But gone are the days where you could say it was your grandmother’s funeral,” he says. “You only have so many grandmas.The recent leaders of Australia’s organised crime gangs have largely fled overseas, and McTaggart says luxury watches and the like, retailing at $1 million plus, are easy ways to ferry the proceeds back to the bosses.
Certain brands will come into vogue, especially as celebrity sponsorships flood social media, but the tastes of the underworld can be hard to divine. Australian Border Force says trade-based laundering “has emerged as a growing global threat as have strengthened anti-money laundering laws”.
MONEY LAUNDERING ORGANIZED CRIME LUXURY GOODS WATCHES HANDBAGS
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