The Philippines has been named by the US Department of State as one of the 66 major drug money-laundering countries in the world.
In its 2012 International Narcotics Strategy Report, the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (BINLEA) points out that although the country is “not a regional financial center,” it “continues to experience an increase in foreign organized criminal activity from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The report also called the Philippines one of the agency’s “jurisdictions of primary concern.”
The same report, posted on the website of the US Embassy in Manila, also disclosed that “insurgency groups operating in the Philippines partially fund their activities through local crime, kidnapping for ransom and the trafficking of narcotics and arms, and engage in money laundering through ties to organized crime.”
“The proceeds of corruption are also a source of laundered funds,” the report also said.
Besides the Philippines, other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on the list of drug money-laundering nations are Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore, and Myanmar (formerly Burma).
Also on the list are the following countries: Afghanistan, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Macau, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Russia, Somalia, Spain, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, the US and Venezuela, among others.
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