Dane Gibson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 09/99) - You may be just an everyday Joe on your way to work at the diamond mine when you feel a tap on your shoulder.

In the world of organized crime, RCMP Diamond Project Sgt. Ray Halwas said all it takes is one offer that sounds too good to be true to change your life forever.

"The working populace on a mine site is the size of a small community," Halwas said.

"Over time, some of the workers may be approached by associates of organized crime. That's when they apply enticements that lead to threats," Halwas said.

Cpl. Susan Munn is the only other member of the Diamond Unit. The officers work with diamond producers from around the world to better understand how organized crime operates in different countries.

"Basically, they'll start out testing where diamonds are available, then they end up getting a small number of employees involved," Munn said.

"They offer extreme amounts of money for any rough stone, regardless of value. If an employee buys into that, then the transactions are used against them and you get into a blackmail situation."

Munn said organized criminals, once in a community, may start out by securing a supply of rough diamonds, but that's just the tip of the iceberg.

"Rather than dealing with suitcases of cash, they're dealing with a cigarette pack full of rocks. It's easier to launder rocks than millions of dollars in cash," Munn said.

"What tends to happen is that the finances that are gleaned from illegal diamond activity feed into the existing drug trade and other illicit activities."

Setting up front companies to partner with legitimate local businesses is also standard practice for organized crime.

"A front business can also be used to launder black- market diamonds," Halwas said.

"They're not a bunch of thugs standing on a street corner. Organized crime is big business."

Munn said each of the 22 diamond-producing countries in the world suffer the effects of organized crime.

She said in April of this year, an illegal diamond export/import operation involving 10 firms and as much as $62 million was discovered by Belgian authorities.

A De Beers news release reported picking up on a smuggling ring that was packing rough diamonds, stolen from its Namibian operation, into sardine cans. They could put as many as 1,900 stones in per can. They would then fill a wooden crate with the counterfeit sardine cans, and fly them out by helicopter.

A report from the June 26 Mining Journal outlined how a South African state diamond company discovered that employees were strapping uncut diamonds to trained pigeons. The birds would then fly the booty home.

BHP Diamonds Inc. senior public affairs officer, Denise Burlingame, said while security on their mine site is extremely tight, they realize the RCMP are the front line to illegal activity outside of the mine's jurisdiction.

"Yes, BHP is concerned about organized crime. It's something everyone should be concerned about," Burlingame said.

"From our perspective, we're relying on the experts and, in this instance, the experts are the RCMP. We have our own security, but it's the RCMP's job to protect the citizens of the NWT -- and they're doing an excellent job."