First “Silver Notice” from Interpol – pilot project launched for tracing criminal assets

Shortly after the year 2025 was welcomed worldwide with colorful fireworks, the police organization Interpol also expanded the color spectrum of its information exchange system. Since the beginning of the year, the familiar “Red Notice” for tracing individuals has been joined by the “Silver Notice” as part of a pilot project, which enables member states for the first time to request information on criminally obtained assets of suspects in other countries. The aim is to effectively combat transnational organized crime. True to the motto “follow the money”, the aim is to identify the proceeds of crime and subsequently prepare for asset recovery measures. The first “Silver Notice” was issued at the instigation of the Italian financial police (Guardia di Finanza) in relation to an allegedly high-ranking member of the Italian mafia. This blog post provides an initial overview of the new Silver Notice tool and places it in the context of developments in German law in the area of asset recovery.

The Interpol color coding system

The exchange of information at Interpol basically takes two forms: “Notices” and “Diffusions”. “Notices” are alerts that the respective member state forwards centrally to Interpol, from where they are distributed to all member states. “Diffusions” are sent by the requesting member state directly to the desired member state as a recipient. Interpol subsequently also records them in its database. Depending on the purpose of the request (search for suspected criminals, missing persons reports, etc.), Interpol distinguishes between eight color categories for notices and diffusions (red, yellow, blue, black, green, orange, purple and silver). The best known is the “Red Notice”, which contains a request for provisional arrest with the aim of subsequently extraditing the accused person for criminal proceedings or similar followed by the “Blue Notice” to collect additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a criminal investigation. Contrary to popular belief, the “Red Notice” itself is not a formal arrest warrant, but merely a request to the national law enforcement authorities of other member states to locate and provisionally arrest the wanted person. In some cases, Interpol even publishes Red Notices on its website.

The Silver Notice pilot project

The Silver Notice pilot project is based on a Resolution passed by the 91st General Assembly of Interpol in 2023. The pilot phase is to last until at least November 2025 and will be evaluated at the next Interpol General Assembly. There are currently 52 member states involved, which can issue a total of 500 Silver Notices and Silver Diffusions during the test run. Publication of the Silver Notices is not yet planned during that time.

The Silver Notice is intended to enable member states to obtain information on criminally obtained assets of a suspected person, such as real estate, vehicles or business interests. The information obtained can afterwards be used to prepare and implement freezing orders, confiscation or recovery measures. The instrument is thus part of a trend observed both at national and international level that sees the seizure and confiscation of criminally obtained assets as an effective means of combating crime. Although Interpol’s pilot project is clearly aimed primarily at combating organized crime (OC), there is no formal restriction to typical OC-offences such as drug trafficking. Instead, a Silver Notice is also to be used in cases of fraud, corruption or other “serious offenses”. In order to counteract abuse – for example in the form of political instrumentalization – the General Secretariat examines all incoming Silver Notices and Silver Diffusions for compatibility with the Interpol Constitution. The concerns regarding this examination in other color codings should be fully applicable to the new color.

Silver Notice and comparable developments in German law

Initial reactions to the introduction of the Silver Notice have been partly positive. According to some authors, it could be a “game changer” in the recovery of criminally obtained assets, a “milestone” in the global fight against organized crime or a “revolutionary tool”. However, this hope is not usually substantiated in detail. Instead, a critical tone is appropriate with regard to the pilot project. The objective – combating organized crime – is to be welcomed. However, the supposedly necessary “effective” tools for combating it are regularly defined in a questionably broad manner with regard to the protection of alleged persons required by constitutional law. Although reductions in the legal position of these persons are therefore often justified by the particularly dangerous nature of organized crime, experience shows that such tools – which now include the Silver Notice – are not limited to cases of serious crime for long. The abandonment of the initially limited catalog of suitable predicate offences for money laundering pursuant to Section 261 StGB (German Criminal Code) and the use of criminal procedural investigative measures standardized in Section 435 (4) StPO (German Code of Criminal Procedure) to carry out independent confiscation proceedings shows that the tools created for mafia structures are quickly being used in the prosecution of all types of (white collar) crime, regardless of the severity of wrongdoing. This approach is all the more worthy of criticism as, according to the position of German courts, the confiscation of criminally obtained assets should not be a punishment, so that the person concerned does not have access to numerous criminal procedural guarantees (see Hiéramente/Pfister jurisPR-StrafR 7/2021 note 2). At the same time, however, the investigating authorities are granted the widest possible access to the instruments of criminal investigation measures.

Only time will tell to what extent the Silver Notice can fulfill the expectations mentioned above. From the perspective of criminal defense, however, in view of the largely unclear requirements, it is to be feared that the criminal origin of assets will simply be claimed without further justification and that the Silver Notice will be used in a way as a de facto blanket statement of assets about a person. The involvement of Interpol appears even more problematic as Interpol, according to its own statutes, does not subject the alleged suspicion to any actual examination, but is basically limited to examining whether the persecution is apparently for racist, military, political or religious reasons. Furthermore, there is no court instance of appeal.

Furthermore, in view of recent legislative developments in Germany and at international level, it does not seem far-fetched that the “Silver Notice” instrument will soon be used across the board and not just in the targeted cases of transnational organized crime. Experience has shown that broad terms used such as “severity of the offenses” are being interpreted increasingly extensively colliding with fundamental international criminal procedural law principles.

Finally, the known difficulties of legal protection against unjustified requests in the context of “Red Notices” could also arise here. First experiences in practice and the planned evaluation of the pilot project will hopefully shed light on whether and how criminal defense must prepare for the use of this new instrument in the future.