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Diamond related Excerpt from 2002 Annual Report on Organized Crime in Canada by the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC)
The following has been excerpted from the OTHER MONITORED AND EMERGING ISSUES section of the 2002 Annual Report on Organized Crime in Canada prepared by Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC) and released the week ending August 24, 2002.
Beginning of Excerpt...
Diamonds
In a relatively short period of time, beginning with the discovery of diamonds at Point Lake in the Northwest Territories in 1991, the diamond industry in Canada has developed to the point where this country is currently one of the five largest producers of rough diamonds in the world. Law enforcement in Canada is aware of the potential criminal exploitation of diamonds and is monitoring the developing diamond industry. To assist in this effort, the RCMP established a Diamond Protection Service, in the Northwest Territories, that works in cooperation with other law enforcement agencies and the diamond industry. Illegal diamond activity is an issue monitored by Criminal Intelligence Service Canada.
Precious stones such as diamonds have always been an attractive commodity to the criminal world due to their high value per mass weight. They have been utilized by organized crime as currency to acquire contraband such as illegal drugs and weapons, to pay for services rendered, and as a means to move and launder criminal profits. There is also concern that terrorist organizations, such as the Al Qaeda network, may also be using diamonds as a form of currency to avoid the international banking system and controls by governmental authorities in order to continue to finance their operations. (77)
In Canada, there is a potential, as observed in other countries, for organized crime to attempt the infiltration of the industry to arrange for diamonds to be illegally diverted from the legitimate commercial pipeline for their criminal exploitation and profit. As well, given Canada's reputation within the diamond industry as producers of clean diamonds, this country could attract smuggled illicit diamonds to be merged within our regular rough diamond production supply and effectively become sanitized as a bona fide Canadian product for legal sale. Similarly, this reputation could attract foreign origin cut and finished diamonds to be misrepresented as a Canadian product.
One source of illicit rough diamonds could be from regions, such as Western Africa, where some countries involved in violent civil strife, have been known to use profits from diamond sales to further the conflicts. Consequently, these diamonds have been labeled "conflict" or "blood" diamonds and have become part of common international diamond lexicon. Our geographical proximity to the United States also increases the potential of Canada as a transit point in the movement and/or sanitization of illegal diamonds, as the United States is the largest world-wide consumer of diamonds.
The international movement of illicit diamonds is assisted by a lack of effective rough diamond certification measures to easily ascertain the true origin of a rough diamond. The "conflict" diamond situation raised international interest in addressing this problem. As a result, an international effort, called the Kimberly Process, was initiated involving national governments, non-government organizations and the diamond industry to establish minimum acceptable standards for national certification schemes for the international movement of rough diamonds. In March 2002, Canada hosted a Kimberly Process meeting. It is hoped that the next plenary meeting in Switzerland (November 2002) will prepare all participants for the simultaneous launch of an accepted certification scheme by the end of the year.(78)
There is also a danger that organized crime groups may target the Canadian diamond market and introduce synthetic diamonds, known as moissanite, that are acquired cheaply in foreign markets and illegally passed off as the legitimate product for substantial profit in Canada. (79) The moissanite diamond on the legal market is retailed at a substantially lower price than a real diamond. However, it is difficult to differentiate these synthetic diamonds from a legitimate diamond which leaves ample opportunity for criminal misrepresentation and exploitation.
Canada's diamond mining industry continues to expand and explorations by various companies are either on-going or planned for locations in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Québec. As well, Canada could develop subsidiary operations in the future, such as diamond sorting, cutting and polishing, so that rough diamonds do not have to leave Canada for conversion to a finished product. While these developments would have positive economic benefits and certainly solidify Canada's position within the international diamond community it could also create further potential opportunities for organized crime to exploit and increase the challenges to the law enforcement community.
...End of Excerpt
Related references
77 "Al-Qaida Terrorist Operatives Diversifying Finances, UN Expert Panel Warns", United Nations News Centre, 22 May 2002.
78 "Kimberley Process - Final Communique", Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, 21 March 2002.
79 "Criminal Intelligence Service Alberta - Annual Report" Criminal Intelligence Service Alberta, April 2000-March 2001, 5.
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