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With Growth of Drug and Terror Alliance, Banks Must Watch Correspondent Accounts, Say Analysts
By Matt Squire
printAs the nexus between terrorist financing and drug trafficking widens, financial institutions will have to more closely scrutinize their correspondent banking relationships, say consultants. Terrorist organizations, including the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), are increasingly tapping into the $322 billion global drug trade to finance their operations, said Michael Braun, the chief of operations with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in a July 18 speech at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The shift, due in part to the fact that both groups rely on the same criminal infrastructure, has now reached...
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