REUTERS, 31/10 14:00 CET

http://www.euronews.com/newswires/1709502-italy-money-laundering-probe-swoops-on-21-cash-transfer-bureaux/

MILAN (Reuters) – Italian police have sequestered 21 money transfer bureaux as part of an investigation into a scheme to launder billions of euros from drugs and people trafficking.

The tax police said on Tuesday they had sifted through 30 million money transfer operations carried out in 2010-2011 through 11 of Italy’s major payment agencies, with an overall value of 10 billion euros $13 billion (8 billion pounds).

The probe, which started in the northern Italian city of Brescia, showed that 35 percent of the operations were for money laundering.

Police said they had found “a mechanism used extensively to let money of doubtful origin circulate”, and that they were looking at possible failures by the agencies to prevent money laundering.