NCJ Number
217409
Journal
FBI: Law Enforcement Bulletin Volume: 76 Issue: 2 Dated: February 2007 Pages: 17-21
Date Published
February 2007
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article discusses diamond and jewelry industry crime and offers suggestions for proactive countermeasures.
Abstract
Evidence indicates that organized crime members, terrorists, and other criminals are increasingly using diamonds, gemstones, and jewelry to finance their illicit activities or as a means of money laundering, international movement, or storage of crime proceeds. Proactive countermeasures are suggested to prevent illegal dealing in diamonds and jewelry, including training officers to identify and describe jewelry and encouraging the public to catalogue their jewelry with full descriptions and photographs. Data suggest that between 1999 and 2003, jewelry was among the fastest growing categories of stolen property in the United States. Diamonds, gemstones, and jewelry are attractive to criminals because of their ease of concealment, relatively high values, and untraceable attributes. Law enforcement is faced with several challenges related to the investigation of diamond and jewelry theft, including difficulty with identifying stolen products and a general lack of knowledge and awareness of diamonds, gemstones, and the jewelry industry at all levels. Indeed, due to the difficulty of tracking diamonds and jewelry, police recovery rates for these items rank among the lowest. Two other challenges facing the regulation and tracking of diamonds are the lack of laws specific to diamonds and the emergence of the Canadian diamond industry, which ushered in new opportunities for criminals. Endnotes