The momentum for international cooperation has been steadily gathering. At the World Ministerial Conference in Naples in 1994 and the Money Laundering Conference in Buenos Aires last year, countries agreed to work together in a systematic way to combat the effects of international money laundering. Canada and the United States have been supporting each other's efforts at these meetings. Money laundering has become a scourge because it is so directly tied to organized criminal enterprises, which are both national and international in scope. We are talking about the movement, conversion and eventual further illegal use of profits of criminal organizations.
Money launderers prey on our societies and our economies by abusing the privileges of open markets.
The numbers are staggering. It is estimated, for example, that in North America billions of dollars are laundered annually. Much of this money represents the proceeds of illegal drug sales. We in Canada have been steadily improving our legal, financial and enforcement ability to fight drug trafficking and money laundering. In 1989, we implemented Proceeds of Crime legislation and created the offence of laundering the proceeds of certain drug and enterprise crime offences.