WhatsApp chat used to move millions for crime, investigation reveals

A new investigation reveals how a WhatsApp chat served as a medium for funneling hundreds of millions of euros in untracked cash, fueling global organized crimes.

As reported by BBC, the investigation led by European investigative networks following breakthroughs by Belgian magistrates’ centers on a 532-member WhatsApp chat named "Traders of Greater Europe".

Operating between February and December 2022, the chat logs contained over 82,000 messages orchestrating a massive informal money-transfer network.

The network utilized informal hawala brokers to move funds across borders completely outside the digital banking sector. Transactions were restricted to sums over €5,000, though many involved substantially larger amounts.

Investigators recovered concrete proof that money channeled through the network from Brussels reached Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria, earmarked to help smuggle the wives of fighters out of detention camps.

When Belgian police seized the phone of the network’s Brussels leader, they found the WhatsApp group chat alongside roughly 6,000 photographs of physical €5 bank notes capturing serial numbers) matched with 6,000 photos of identity documents to verify secure handoffs.

Beyond terror financing, the logistical framework mirrored networks utilized by separate smuggling rings tracked by Europol, which have moved tens of thousands of illegal migrants into Europe.

Investigation uncovers renewed privacy concerns as a sprawling financial network allegedly operated through WhatsApp chats, with thousands of messages exposing an informal money-transfer system linked to organized crime.