Interpol has a new tool to track down loot that criminals are stashing away around the world

LYON, France (AP) — Interpol is rolling out a new tool to help police track down hidden criminal assets and an Italian crime boss was one of the first to feel its effects.

The so-called “Silver Notice” allows the policing organization’s 196 member countries to alert and help each other out when they’re hunting for cash, cryptocurrency, cars, real estate and other illicit wealth that criminals stash away.

Interpol says that generally, criminals have been managing to keep around 99% of their illegal gains. Its new alert system, trialed since January 2025, is intended to make it easier for police to trace and seize more of those assets.

Nicholas Court, director of task force coordination at Interpol, said 82 countries that have been trying the tool have uncovered at least €36 million ($41 million) worth of criminal assets so far.

“Over time, the hope is that 36 million grows significantly and we start moving the needle and taking more of the money away from criminals by helping our countries to find out where they’ve stashed their illicit wealth,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press at the police agency’s headquarters in Lyon, France.

The notice helps police forces work together to ensure illicit money returns to the right country, Court said.

“In really simple terms it enables law enforcement officials who are looking for criminal money to send a message to the rest of the world that says: ‘This person, this criminal, is worth this amount of money and we want to know where their assets are. We want to know if you, in other countries, can find their cars, their boats, their cash, their livestock, and can respond to us’,” he told the AP.

Interpol says the first silver notice that it circulated to members, in January last year, was requested by Italy, which was seeking information about assets belonging to a senior member of the mafia.

“The Italians knew that this criminal was worth a huge amount of money. But they also knew that most of his money was not in Italy. So they sent a silver notice to all Interpol member countries and within a few days, Brazil responded,” Court said.

“Brazil searched their databases and they were able to find numerous assets that were in the name of the criminal, in the name of associates of the criminal, related to property, to apartments, even to livestock,” he said.

“So Brazil and Italy are now talking to each other in order to get the assets back from Brazil to Italy,” he added.

Member nations are expected to approve the tool’s full adoption at Interpol’s general assembly, meeting this year in Hong Kong in November.

The best-known of Interpol’s other color-coded alert tools is the “Red Notice.” Member nations use those to alert each other when they are hunting for people suspected of major crimes.

The new silver version is the first additional color-coded notice that Interpol has introduced in at least 20 years.