Antonio Maria Costa told the UK Observer that intelligence agencies and prosecutors alerted him 18 months ago to evidence that drug money was being "absorbed into the financial system."
"In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital," Costa said. "In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor."
The Observer reports:
Some of the evidence put before his office indicated that gang money was used to save some banks from collapse when lending seized up, [Costa] said
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