INTERPOL has a new tool with a colorful name. It helps police track down criminal assets.
To catch international criminals, police need international help. INTERPOL (short for the International Criminal Police Organization) is a group that helps police in its 196 member countries work together. The organization itself isn’t a law enforcement agency. It simply offers coordination and assistance.
Each member country hosts an INTERPOL National Central Bureau. These bureaus connect one country’s law enforcement with those of other countries. They cooperate on cross-border investigations and share information needed to investigate crimes.
The new “Silver Notice” allows member countries to help each other when they’re hunting for cash, cryptocurrency, cars, real estate, and other illicit wealth.
INTERPOL has other color-coded alert tools too. The best-known is the “Red Notice.” Member nations use those to alert each other when searching for people suspected of major crimes. Silver is the first new color-coded notice introduced in at least 20 years.
Criminals usually manage to keep around 99% of their illegal gains, says INTERPOL. Its new alert system is intended to make it easier for police to trace and seize more of those assets. Law enforcement has been using the alert on a trial basis since January 2025.
Nicholas Court is director of task force coordination at INTERPOL. He says 82 countries trying the tool have uncovered at least $41 million worth of criminal assets.
“It enables law enforcement officials who are looking for criminal money to send a message to the rest of the world that says: ‘This person, this criminal, is worth this amount of money, and we want to know where their assets are. We want to know if you, in other countries, can find their cars, their boats, their cash, their livestock, and can respond to us,’” Court says.
Italy requested the very first Silver Notice in January 2025. Italian police sought information about assets belonging to a senior member of the mafia.
“The Italians . . . knew that most of his money was not in Italy,” says Court. Within a few days of the Silver Notice, Brazil responded.
Brazilian police searched databases. They found assets such as property and livestock in the name of the criminal and his associates.
“Brazil and Italy are now talking to each other in order to get the assets back from Brazil to Italy,” Court adds.
Member nations are expected to fully approve the tool at INTERPOL’s general assembly in November.
Why? When crime reaches around the world, people need to work together to seek justice.