Triads Using S. Africa as Base for Diamond Smuggling Trade

Chinese Triad gangs are using Pretoria as a base to co-ordinate a global diamond trafficking network spanning four continents and involving 15 countries and making a mockery of the international Kimberley Process designed to counter trade in conflict diamonds.

A South African-registered aircraft left the country last Friday for Yaounde in Cameroon carrying 300 million rand ($45.8 million) worth of rough diamonds. And a Triad member, Tsang Fen Yei, said this valuation was “cautiously conservative”, according to South African media reports.

In Cameroon, the stones are intercepted by Triad members and sorted into parcels for delivery into the legitimate diamond market. The Triad is reportedly one of the largest organized crime groups in the world and law enforcement authorities believe it uses diamonds to launder vast sums of money.

The diamonds are a low-volume, high-income resource for the group, according to the Triad member. “Illicit diamonds are easily found in Africa and can be smuggled across international borders at will,” he said.

The rough diamonds are obtained from African diamond producing countries and, through a complex network, smuggled into South Africa.

“Illegally mined diamonds are common ... the need for hard currency by those with interests in protecting conflict zone diamond fields, such as the Congo, will always drive the illegal trade,” the Triad man said.

“To conceal their origin, the diamonds are half-polished, making them similar to local semi-processed stones, and then mixed with legitimately mined diamonds,” he said.

Fen Yei said that before delivery to Belgian diamond dealers in Antwerp, each diamond was issued a legitimate certificate of origin. Blank certificates of origin can be bought for as little as $20 from officials in certain countries, he said, in fact laundering the diamonds and bypassing the Kimberley Process Certificate Scheme designed to prevent this kind of trade.

The National Bank of Angola, he said, was a favored source of blank certificates of origin.

Through a network of international connections, the illegal diamonds were then injected into the international diamond market.

South African police say the Triad was able to resist law enforcement infiltration and efforts to disrupt Triad operations proved difficult.