By Charlie Charalambous
THE POLICE were yesterday accused of standing idly by while criminals got rich on drug money.
Members of the House Ad Hoc Committee blasted the various law enforcement agencies for not using everything within their power to track down criminals profiting from organised crime.
During the debate on drug crime and money laundering, deputies were astonished to hear that last year not one case of drug trafficking had been investigated by police or a special unit created to track down money laundering.
Attending deputy police chief Andreas Stephanou said no evidence had come to light which suggested that drug money was being laundered in Cyprus.
He also said that statistics for 1996 showed that not one case of drug trafficking had been investigated.
But deputies were not happy that a newly established anti-money laundering task force did not have the initiative to investigate suspected big-time criminals.
“We approved the relevant law to prevent it (money laundering), not to wait until it happens,” said Akel’s Aristofanis Georgiou.
Georgiou found it incredible that, with Cyprus receiving so much bad publicity abroad as an alleged money laundering centre, those appointed to investigate were not doing their job.
“This unit must be allowed to work independently and not wait for the police to give it evidence. If the law does not allow this we must change it,” said Akel’s Costas Papacosta.
Committee chairman Doros Theodosiou wondered why the police did not check the financial background of drug villains and request documents from the banks.
He then became agitated when members of the security forces said there were rules and regulations concerning the acquirement of bank documents.
“There seems to be a misunderstanding. You don’t seem to understand that the law empowers you to do such things, but you don’t bother investigating to see whether people are profiting from organised crime,” said Theodorou.
Raising the temperature of the proceedings, Theodorou offered his own profile of the drug baron.
“These people have bank accounts with money earned from organised crime which they move around freely, but you don’t understand the connection.”
The chairman said crime-busting measures were useless if the police could not grasp the simple fact that there was a very real link between drugs and money laundering.
“In effect we are just allowing criminals to walk free. We should be making it harder for them and checking their sources of income.”
Georgiou backed up his chairman by saying, “when we talk about fighting organised crime, the reality is that nothing is being done.”
When Stephanou was asked whether he thought people were getting rich from drug money, he said: “Surely people do benefit, but not those planting a couple of cannabis plants for their own use.”
Before the meeting closed, Georgiou served more food for thought to the island’s crime fighters.
“If someone builds a £500,000 house and has an expensive car parked outside but is registered unemployed, is there no way of finding out where the money came from?”
