Police arrest 178 in Europe, US money laundering crackdown

Amsterdam

POLICE forces across Europe and the United States arrested 178 people as part of a crackdown on money laundering last week and identified some 23 million euros (S$34.8 million) in stolen funds, the European Union judicial agency Eurojust said.

The arrests were the result of an operation targeting the practice of money muling, where illicit funds are disguised by wiring them through the accounts of intermediaries, or mules, who are paid with a cut of the proceeds.