In an astounding announcement, the head of the U.N.'s Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, has told The Guardian that world banks began laundering illegal drug money to stay afloat during last year's financial crisis, when other sources of lending had dried up. Costa says he's seen evidence that $352 billion of criminal cash was absorbed by the global financial system. This evidence is "understood," says The Guardian, to come from officials in the U.S., Great Britain, Italy, and Switzerland. Is Costa telling the truth—or just making a strangely reckless claim?
Such a win-win deal would make perfect sense: "Hidden in the euphemisms" of Costa's words, says Charlie Stross in his Autopope blog, is the reality that drug cartels and other criminal gangs, eager to launder their money, went on "a $352 billion asset-buying spree" — and that regulators turned a blind eye to this because "the alternative was to allow the banks to collapse." Only problem: Now that criminals around the world have all this "legit" wealth, what will they do with it?
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