A federal criminal defense attorney breaks down what crimes Interpol won't issue Red Notices for. Interpol skips socially controversial offenses like prostitution and honor crimes, administrative matters like traffic violations, and personal drug possession. Financial crimes fall into a gray area depending on the specifics.
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As a general rule, Interpol will not issue Red Notices except for what it considers to be serious ordinary law crimes. Interpol will not get involved in offenses originating from a violation of laws or regulations of an administrative nature or deriving from private disputes unless the criminal activity is aimed at facilitating a serious crime. There are a number of offenses for which Interpol will not issue Red Notices. I think it's a good idea just to kind of be familiar with the kinds of crimes that Interpol is particularly concerned about. As a general rule, Interpol will not issue Red Notices except for what it considers to be serious ordinary law crimes. So, this is just kind of the touchstone for what Interpol says that it is, you know, interested in and what it is not interested in. So, for example, Interpol is not going to concern itself with offenses that raise controversial issues in some countries regarding social norms. So, for example, crimes such as prostitution, offenses involving, like, the violation of a family's honor, Interpol is not going to issue red notices for that. They're also not going to issue red notices for offenses related to family or private matters, such as bigamy or homosexual acts. But then there's this also this other category, which I submit I think is open to quite a bit of interpretation. Ostensibly, Interpol will not get involved in offenses originating from a violation of laws or regulations of an administrative nature, or deriving from private disputes, unless the criminal activity is aimed at facilitating a serious crime or is suspected of being connected to organized crime. So, for example, traffic violations, defamation, or issuing unfunded checks unless there was a fraudulent or malicious intent at the time that the check was issued. Now that's the language from Interpol itself. Now, in addition to that, I mean, the Secretariat General of Interpol has issued a non-exhaustive list of offenses that also do not qualify. So just to give you a flavor of what Interpol is not going to get involved in: prostitution, offenses related to gestational surrogacy, pornography unless the activity is aimed at facilitating serious crime, like child exploitation, sexual assault or rape, or connected to organized crime, possession of drugs for personal use, abortion, carrying out euthanasia, dowry-related crimes, offenses related to the abandonment of employment, offenses related to usury, issuing unfunded checks, or violations of labor law. So this should give you an idea of the kinds of crimes that Interpol is interested in. I think there's a lot of room for interpretation for some of these, especially as it relates to the more financial and kind of business-related activities. But it's important to know that Interpol concerns itself with these very serious but still kind of garden-variety criminal matters. So if you have any questions about this, if you're interested in knowing whether or not there is a Red Notice issued against you, or you just want to talk to somebody about some of your concerns, please feel free to give us a call. We can be reached at area code 803-445-1333, or please feel free to reach out to us at our website at www.elizabethfranklinbest.com and leave us a message there.
