Zambia recovered 22 billion kwacha (about 6.47 US million dollars) from money laundering in 2005, according to local newspaper Sunday Post.

Speaking in Lusaka on Saturday at the opening of a money-laundering workshop for judges, Drug Enforcement Commissioner Ryan Chitoba said that the money could have been deprived from hardworking Zambians by a few greedy individuals.

He said the vice of money laundering destabilizes legitimate financial markets by introducing illegally acquired money into financial institutions and while the offenders seemingly gains, the majority of Zambians suffer colossal loss.

Chief justice Ernest Sakala told the opening workshop that money laundering has the capacity not only to undermine the economy but also to erase and reverse any meaningful gain in it.

Sakala called on members of the judiciary to be objective as they expeditiously preside over money laundering cases as this is significant to Zambia's continued economic development.

Source: Xinhua