Earth League International (ELI) Executive Director Andrea Crosta has published an informative op-ed in Mongabay that shines a light on one of the most overlooked yet dangerous systems fueling transnational crime today: “Flying Money.” Known as feiqian in Chinese, “Flying Money” is an informal, largely invisible banking network that has evolved into a sophisticated money laundering scheme, enabling everything from drug trafficking to wildlife crime.
In his commentary, Crosta reveals how this shadowy financial system — which operates without paper trails or traditional banking oversight — has become “the engine that fuels the fentanyl trade” while simultaneously facilitating massive environmental crimes worth up to $281 billion annually. The system works by allowing criminal organizations to swap currencies and commodities across borders, effectively laundering money from illegal activities like timber smuggling, wildlife trafficking, and illegal gold mining.
Drawing from ELI’s years of undercover investigations across 30 countries, Crosta explains how Chinese brokers help traffickers pool profits from wildlife, illegal timber, gold, and drug networks, with the money then “flown” through underground networks to China or onward to places like the U.S. — scrubbed clean of its illegal origins.
What makes this particularly alarming is the convergence of criminal networks that Crosta has witnessed throughout his career. This crime convergence means that conservation professionals are no longer just fighting wildlife traffickers — they’re battling global organized crime networks.
“I’ve spent my life fighting this threat, not only because I care about our planet’s future — which I do — but also because the same crooks trafficking people, drugs and weapons are increasingly trafficking elephant ivory, tiger bones and many other natural resources,” Andrea writes. “That’s why I believe flying money is the greatest national security risk you’ve never heard of.”
Crosta argues that defeating this system requires unprecedented international cooperation, increased funding for law enforcement agencies, more intelligence and undercover operations, and crucially, better data sharing. As he puts it in the piece: “Information silos are killing us — law enforcement, nations, conservation groups need more data sharing, more staff embeds, more eyes on the ground. The only way to defeat a deadly threat stretching from Asia to Africa, and from Europe to the Americas is by working together.”
Andrea’s op-ed has generated strong interest among various government agencies around the world, including in the U.S., and was picked up and republished by Africa Defense Forum (ADF), a magazine published by U.S. Africa Command—highlighting how serious the Flying Money system is, not only for environmental crime, but also for transnational organized crime and national security more broadly.
