In brief
Investigations by the European Broadcasting Union reveal that a 532‑member WhatsApp chat, named “Traders of Greater Europe,” was used for illicit cash transfers worldwide, including to Islamist militants in Syria. The chat leveraged the traditional hawala system—anonymous, broker‑to‑broker money exchanges—to move hundreds of millions of euros without a paper trail. Belgian magistrate Vincent Guerra uncovered the group during a 2024 court case, finding evidence of 82,000 messages and thousands of photos of banknotes and IDs. The network’s reach, involving drug trafficking, people smuggling and other organised crime across Europe, underscores the hidden global reach of informal remittance systems in facilitating terror financing.
A 532‑member WhatsApp group, “Traders of Greater Europe,” was found to move hundreds of millions of euros worldwide, funding organised crime and extremist groups.
Belgium’s prosecutor Vincent Guerra uncovered the chat after a 2024 court case that convicted six money launderers, including the network’s Brussels boss, Abu Adam. The investigators recovered 82,000 messages and more than 12,000 photos of €5 notes and identity cards—proof that the group handled at least 12,000 cash transactions.
The group used the traditional hawala money‑transfer system, a broker‑to‑broker network that avoids banks and leaves no electronic record. While hawala is legitimate for migrant remittances, criminals exploit it to move money around the globe and conceal its flow.
The investigation also uncovered similar hawala rings involved in drug trafficking, people smuggling and other organised‑crime activities across Europe—from a kebab‑restaurant hawala office in Vienna to a Rotterdam‑based broker hub that moved a million euros in an hour and a half.
“This isn’t just amateur work; it’s professional and operates with no government oversight,” Guerra told reporters, highlighting how the system bypasses the SWIFT network and bank‑ledgers that normally trigger anti‑money‑laundering alerts.
