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UN Advisor: Drug Money Propped Up Banks During Crisis
By Susie Madrak Sunday Dec 13, 2009 7:00am

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This sheds some light on why they're not all that eager to legalize drugs, huh?

Shades of BCCI:

    Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height
of the global crisis, the United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.

    Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen
evidence that the proceeds of organized crime were "the only liquid investment
capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a
majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic
system as a result.

    This will raise questions about crime's influence on the economic system at times
of crisis. It will also prompt further examination of the banking sector as world
leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, call for new International
Monetary Fund regulations.

    Speaking from his office in Vienna, Costa said evidence that illegal money was
being absorbed into the financial system was first drawn to his attention by
intelligence agencies and prosecutors around 18 months ago. "In many instances,
the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of
2008, liquidity was the banking system's main problem and hence liquid capital
became an important factor," he said.

    Some of the evidence put before his office indicated that gang money was used to
save some banks from collapse when lending seized up, he said.

Come on, we know there won't be any investigation - not a real one. Because if they
found out what was going on, they'd never tell us.