WhatsApp Money Trail Spans Europe, Fuels Crime and Terror

A 532‑member chat on WhatsApp, called Traders of Greater Europe, brokered cash transfers worldwide using an informal, no‑paper hawala system. The group moved hundreds of millions of euros to cities such as London, Birmingham and Brussels, and even sent funds to militants of the Islamic State in Syria.

Belgian investigative magistrate Vincent Guerra uncovered the chat after a 2024 court case that convicted six money launderers, including Abu Adam, the network’s Brussels head. The chat held 82,000 messages, all in Arabic, and the phone also stored thousands of photos of 5‑euro notes and identity cards—key identifiers in hawala transactions.

Hawala pairs a sender and a receiver broker, who agree to settle net balances later. The system allows large cash movements without electronic records, sidestepping banks that would flag suspicious patterns.

The investigation revealed hawala used beyond terrorism: it fuels drug trafficking, people smuggling and organised crime. Austrian police raided a hawala office in Vienna—run from an on‑street kebab shop—and arrested Syrian brothers charged with human trafficking. Europol has dismantled other smuggling rings that moved roughly 100,000 migrants in 18 months, all financed through hawala.

Police commander Quentin Mugg described hawala as “the primary money‑laundering channel for organised crime.” The brokers, often unregistered, apply their own rates regardless of whether the funds come from a grandmother’s savings, a migrant’s remittance or a terrorist’s bank.