INTERPOL’s latest global police cooperation tool, the Silver Notice, enables police in over eighty countries to trace and identify illegal assets across borders. The initiative was launched in January 2025 and over 200 Silver requests are now active in the system, seeking to trace a total of USD 2.2 billion in cash, real estate, yachts or even cattle.
Tracking down and identifying the illegal proceeds of organized crime is an essential first step in recovering them and returning them to their legal owner. The Silver Notice initiative was approved as a pilot by INTERPOL’s General Assembly in Glasgow in 2024 and is our first new colour-coded Notice in over twenty years. It allows the 81 countries participating in the pilot phase to send requests for cooperation to police in all of our 196 member countries, following approval by the INTERPOL Notices and Diffusions Taskforce (NDTF), the specialist unit that reviews requests for publication of all Notices and Diffusions for legal and regulatory compliance. “We developed a distinct legal framework for the Silver Notice to ensure it would respond specifically to requests to seek and trace crime-related financial information and that all requests can meet requirements under national laws governing money laundering and asset recovery,” explains Carla Delle Donne, NDTF Silver Notice Lead. “That means we can be sure that all Silver Notice requests are reviewed according to the same robust legal principles”.
Turning crime into assets
Engagement with the Silver Notice initiative has been strong across all regions, with more than 2,500 responses shared by countries, including many that are not formally part of the pilot, and over USD 40 million in assets traced or identified. “Criminal organizations launder the proceeds of offences ranging from drug trafficking to corruption, fraud, tax evasion, human trafficking, environmental crime and more,” says Nicholas Court, Acting Director of the INTERPOL Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, “investing them in assets that are just as varied and often moving them across borders. Once our teams and the Silver Notice have helped identify them, INTERPOL hands over to the member countries involved, where law enforcement and judiciary bodies work bilaterally on the process of freezing, confiscating and repatriating them”.
Success tracing assets from Italy to Brazil...
Among the initiative’s significant success stories is the first ever Silver Notice which was published at launch in January 2025. Requested by Italy, the Guardia di Finanza was seeking information on assets belonging to a senior member of the mafia and the Notice quickly led to the identification of over USD 1.7 million in illegal assets in Brazil, ranging from cash and real estate to vehicles and cattle.
…Europe to Australia…
A European country has also had success with an early Silver Notice, seeking to trace more than USD 18 million in public funds misappropriated by a former member of its National Asset Management Company. Less than a month after publication, Australia’s Federal Police had located over a quarter of the total missing money.
… and India to the Middle East
A Silver Notice requested by India in May 2025 concerned visa fraud committed by a European civil servant working there. The individual is suspected of selling fake Schengen area visas and acquiring properties in the Middle East worth over USD 2 million with the proceeds. Just five days after publication, Australia shared information on the suspect's connections and potential assets.
“All of these cases have been decisive in helping to trace criminal assets, but the Silver Notice successes go even further than that, stimulating ongoing exchanges of information that lead to further investigations,” says Claudio Marinelli, Operational Silver Notice Lead within the INTERPOL Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre. “This is especially helpful when a Silver Notice is combined with a Red Notice seeking the arrest of a fugitive, as the detention of the suspect concerned may lead to information on companies they have worked with, assets they own or other people in their entourage.”
Following the money to fight organized crime
As well as providing case coordination to support the countries following those leads, our financial crime experts have also held workshops to give law enforcement and justice professionals in all regions a better understanding of how to make use of the tool in its pilot phase. INTERPOL has also been working even more closely with Italy in 2026, on plans to develop a series of regional operations to bring Silver Notice investigations even closer to the field. “Stepping up the fight against financial crime also counters other types of crime,” says Nicholas Court. “Money is the thread that runs through almost all forms of organized crime and the Silver Notice helps our member countries follow the money both to improve asset recovery rates and dismantle criminal networks”.