The U.S. State Department has published its annual two volume report consisting of Volume 1, Drugs and Chemical Control and Volume 2, Money Laundering. The report identifies countries which are either major illicit drug producers, drug-transit countries, sources of precursor chemicals used in illicit drug production, or where drug controls are an important part of the national policy. These countries are evaluated to determine the extent to which they are fulfilling the objectives of the 1988 UN Drug Convention. The report also identifies countries at the nexus of the illicit drug trade and money laundering activities, present within the countries’ financial institutions. The report discusses synthetic drug trends which are of significant concern for the U.S.
The impact of synthetic opioids is described by the report’s findings, “Specifically in the United States, fentanyl-related overdose deaths in the first half of 2017 jumped 70 percent over the same six-month period in 2016.
INSCR is a valuable tool when assessing the risks relating to geography and jurisdiction. It highlights the most significant steps countries and jurisdictions categorized as “Major Money Laundering Countries”, defined by statute as one “whose financial institutions engage in currency transactions involving significant amounts of proceeds from international narcotics trafficking”. Countries of South East Europe which were categorised as such in 2017 are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Turkey.
The report also includes country files for most of the SEE countries.
The report may be downloaded from the US Department of State website following this LINK>>>
