Over 80 Interpol alerts to trace more than $479m in criminal assets published in 7 months

SINGAPORE – More than 80 Interpol alerts targeting criminal assets around the world have been published in the seven months since the global police organisation piloted its new Silver Notices.

These alerts sought information on assets worth more than €320 million (S$479 million) linked to financial and organised crime, including drug trafficking, robbery and scams.

Illicit assets tracked down with the help of these alerts,

which were launched on Jan 10

, included real estate, jewellery and even a herd of cattle linked to a senior member of the Italian mafia.

The update was furnished on Aug 26 by Mr Claudio Marinelli, operations coordinator at the Interpol Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, at a workshop for Asia-Pacific countries about Silver Notices. The workshop was held on Aug 26 and 27 at Interpol’s Global Complex for Innovation building in Napier Road.

The alert is the organisation’s newest colour-coded notice, and it assists law enforcement agencies to locate assets hidden overseas by criminals.

Speaking to The Straits Times on the sidelines of the workshop, Mr Marinelli said that before the Silver Notice, there were no tools to trace assets worldwide. This grew to be a problem as crimes became more transcontinental.

“You can arrest the criminal, but if you don’t deprive them of the illicit gains, your job is just half-done,” said the official from Italy’s financial crimes police force – Guardia di Finanza – who has been seconded to Interpol.

The 51 countries and territories participating in the pilot phase, including Singapore, can use the Silver Notice to request information from all of Interpol’s 196 member countries on criminal assets.

Additionally, law enforcement agencies can send a Silver Diffusion, an informal request for cooperation, directly to selected countries.

Due to operational sensitivity, the authorities here declined to reveal the number of Silver Notices requested by Singapore, and how many people with such alerts have ties to Singapore.

Low asset recovery rate

Mr Gregory Foo, director of the Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) international organisations and security directorate, noted in a speech at the workshop that the global asset recovery rate stands at only 2 per cent to 3 per cent.

Challenges include the lack of necessary legal frameworks and the difficulty of tracing funds across different jurisdictions, said Mr Foo.

Encouraging countries to use tools like the Silver Notice, he said: “The global law enforcement community can and must do better.”

Mr Marinelli added that financial crime is not always as obvious as violent crime, but it enables criminal organisations to increase their power. “These (crimes) are conducted in the shadows by professionals who build a financial infrastructure for criminal organisations, and we should really hit those to become more effective.”

The first Silver Notice was requested by the Italian authorities on Jan 10, regarding assets belonging to a senior member of the mafia that were gained through extortion and other offences.

Within weeks, close to 90 criminal assets worth about €1.5 million were identified in Brazil. Mr Marinelli said this would have taken months, or even years, in the past via mutual legal assistance requests.

On the Singapore front, Mr Marinelli said that if Silver Notices had existed in 2023, they could have helped in the

$3 billion money laundering case,

which saw 10 foreign nationals jailed and deported.

Noting that the Singapore authorities had used all the existing tools then to identify the related assets, he said the alert could have provided additional opportunities for international collaboration.

Regional workshops

Interpol has organised four regional workshops in 2025 to guide its member countries on the new tool, including the Asia-Pacific workshop.

Representatives from nine countries, including Singapore, Australia and Qatar, attended the workshop, which was supported by MHA and the Singapore Police Force (SPF).

Mr Muhammad Imran Mohamad Ayub, who heads the international cooperation branch at the SPF’s Commercial Affairs Department, said that if countries handle a case where criminal assets are established or suspected to be in Singapore, the authorities here can run the relevant checks.

He said: “As long as it meets the legal thresholds for us to be able to commence the domestic investigation, we will do so, and we will commit to seize them using our police powers.”

The Silver Notice adds to Interpol’s multiple colour-coded alerts, including the well-known Interpol Red Notice, which is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person.

There are cases where Singapore does not arrest individuals with a Red Notice, such as Yan Zhenxing, a Chinese national and Singapore permanent resident accused of money laundering who was nabbed in Batam in December 2024.

SPF had said it was aware of the Red Notice against Yan, but did not receive any request for assistance from the Chinese authorities, and there was not enough evidence that he had committed money laundering offences under Singapore’s laws.

MHA told ST on Aug 27 that similar to Red Notices, a Silver Notice is not an arrest warrant. A Silver Notice is an international request for information.

The ministry added: “Where the issuing country of an Interpol Silver Notice has contacted Singapore, our relevant authorities will cooperate with them within the ambit of our laws.”

MHA said it may also contact the issuing country if Singapore has significant security concerns, or there is sufficient evidence that offences might have been committed under the Republic’s laws.