In Sweden, the Enforcement Authority, Police and the Customs Department collaborated in the operation to curb the outflow of criminal cash, which was held in October. Customs officials reportedly performed checks on passengers bound for "the eastern Mediterranean" in Arlanda Airport in Stockholm.
"I am very happy with the results, since over 600,000 SEK [roughly $70,000] in cash was seized during a short period of time," Linda Rundqvist, national operations coordinator at Customs Department, said in a press-release.
According to Rundqvist, the volume of cash from Sweden has been increasing, a trend which might possibly indicate a rise in the support of terrorism. Accordingly, the massive seizures of cash were made from travelers heading to Iraq and Turkey in just over 400 checks. Additionally, valuables such as watches were collected.
Earlier this autumn, Swedish Interior Minister Anders Ygeman conceded in an opinion piece in the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet that apart from covert cash flows, digital currencies, such as Bitcoin could, too, be exploited for money laundering and even the financing of terrorism due to poor transparency. Ygeman called these methods "a threat to the society's financial infrastructure and long-term sustainability," as well as a "threat that transgresses national borders."
Meanwhile, the number of cases of the suspected terrorism financing in Sweden is increasing. The 2015 annual report by the Finance Police suggested that the total value of suspicious transactions exceeded 7.2 million SEK (roughly $0.9mln).
Amerikansk gränskontroll på Arlanda https://t.co/kWAQheWUDi #Gränskontroll #Arlanda #USA #Nyheter pic.twitter.com/w0fUvduItz
— LEXBASE.SE (@LEXBASENYHETER) 3 ноября 2016 г.
