WhatsApp chat used to send cash for crime and extremism

An investigation by European broadcasters has uncovered that a WhatsApp group chat facilitated the global transfer of hundreds of millions of euros in cash, providing untraceable funding for organized crime and extremism, with the Islamic State group in Syria identified as one of the recipients.

The 532-member WhatsApp group, named "Traders of Greater Europe," was utilized to arrange cross-border cash transfers for clients, including those destined for British cities like Birmingham and London. In one instance, payments originating from Brussels were sent to Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria.

The investigative journalism network of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which includes the BBC, also found extensive evidence of similar cash transfer systems being employed in human smuggling and drug trafficking operations.

The group chat, containing over 82,000 messages sent between late February and December 2022, was initially discovered by Belgian investigating magistrate Vincent Guerra. An investigating magistrate is a judge who reviews evidence in complex cases before trial and recommends whether they should proceed.

Guerra described the volume of transactions as "staggering" and stated that the network spanned "the entire planet." The case began as an inquiry into terror financing, but it "became just a drop in the ocean of transactions," he noted.

Members of the group chat communicated in Arabic to arrange cash payments using the ancient hawala transfer system. Hawala involves a network of trusted money brokers who can facilitate the global transfer of funds without any electronic record or physical movement of banknotes.

This system relies on an agreement between two brokers, known as hawaladars, in different locations. One hawaladar receives a sum of cash, and the other agrees to provide the same sum, minus commission, to the recipient. The hawaladars then settle their transactions among themselves at a later date.

Hawala transfers are frequently used for legitimate purposes, such as immigrant workers sending money home to support their families in countries with limited access to banks. However, criminals can exploit hawala transfers to bypass the Swift system, which is used for most international money transfers. Banks typically flag large transactions outside the normal course of business in the Swift system and are required to report any suspicious activity.

The "Great Traders of Europe" group was exclusively for transactions exceeding €5,000 (£4,279), and payments were often significantly larger. There is no indication that all participants in the group were involved in handling criminal funds.

Hawala is illegal in many countries, including most of the EU, but it is legal in the UK provided that brokers are registered with Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

The cache of WhatsApp messages was obtained by the EBU following a 2024 court case in Belgium that resulted in the conviction of six money launderers, including Abu Adam, the network's head in Brussels, and his second-in-command, Abu Ahmed.

Belgian police had uncovered evidence that the defendants were sending money to IS, intended to help militants' wives escape from detention camps in Syria. Upon arresting Abu Adam, they discovered the "Traders of Greater Europe" group chat on his phone.

Guerra likened the discovery to "hitting the jackpot," revealing the inner workings of a vast, clandestine system. The phone also contained 6,000 photos of €5 notes displaying serial numbers and 6,000 photos of identity cards. These details are often used as unique identifying codes in hawala transactions, and the total number of notes and ID cards suggests Abu Adam had processed at least 12,000 transactions, Guerra stated.

"This isn't just amateur work; it's professional, and at a level we could never have imagined," he remarked. "They're bankers with no government oversight."

Vincent Guerra described uncovering the WhatsApp group as "hitting the jackpot."

The EBU also found other gangs across Europe utilizing the hawala system for criminal activities. A former money launderer, whom we are calling Frank, previously involved in European hawala networks, informed the EBU that he had participated in transactions totaling several hundred million euros.

He recounted that his first exposure to the hawala system was at an office in a small town outside Rotterdam. There, five or six messengers arrived with money in about an hour and a half, transferring at least a million euros, he estimated.

"What I found out later is that it's not just about money. It's about the financing of terror. It's about drug trafficking. It's about prostitution and all sorts of other crap, to put it nicely," he said.

Cases in Austria have also demonstrated the hawala system's connection to people smuggling and violence.

In one case investigated by Austrian broadcaster ORF, part of the EBU network, Austrian police raided what they called "the biggest hawala office in Vienna." It operated from a kebab restaurant on a busy thoroughfare and authorities say it was used to facilitate payments for people smuggling.

Two Syrian brothers who ran the operation were charged with human trafficking, as well as torturing and raping a courier who had lost €350,000 (£300,000), claiming he had been robbed. They were convicted last year and sentenced to 18 and 8 years in prison, respectively.

Austrian police and Europol also recently dismantled another people-smuggling ring financed through hawala, which officials said had transported approximately 100,000 people into Europe over 18 months.

Gerald Tatzgern, who leads human-trafficking investigations at Austria's Criminal Intelligence Service, the BK, told ORF that torture was a reality of people smuggling and was also used to maximize profits.

He stated: "Videos of the torture are then sent to the families, saying that if they don't send another €1,000 or several thousand euros, then the person concerned - your son, your brother, your father - will suffer."

Gerald Tatzgern said gangs tortured migrants and demanded money from their families through the hawala system.

Payments to stop the torture were demanded through the hawala system, he said.

Police commander and Europol liaison officer Quentin Mugg, who has led numerous money-laundering investigations, described the hawala system as "the primary money-laundering channel for organised crime."

"Whether the money comes from migrant smuggling, human trafficking, pimping, a grandmother's savings sent as a birthday present to her son, or a Malian working in France who wants to support his family, [the hawaladars] couldn't care less," he said. "And they'll apply their rates."