Italian drug cartels use Chinese shadow banks for hidden payments.

Italian drug cartels are increasingly using unlicensed Chinese money brokers to conceal cross-border payments, according to Italian judicial and law enforcement authorities. The use of shadow networks of Chinese money brokers highlights how an issue that U.S. authorities have been battling in connection to Latin American narcotics groups has taken root in Europe. The transfer method involves depositing a sum with a money broker in one country while another agent in the network elsewhere in the world pays the equivalent amount to the intended recipient. The use of such networks makes it very difficult for authorities to identify and trace, undermining the entire international anti-money laundering system.