International cooperation in action: recovering illicit assets across borders
How successful collaboration between the Colombian and Guernsey authorities, with support from the Basel Institute on Governance’s International Centre for Asset Recovery, led to the successful enforcement of a non-conviction based confiscation order and the sharing of illicit assets linked to drug crimes.
Impact highlights
- Enabled Colombia’s first successful international asset recovery based on its non-conviction based forfeiture law, with nearly half a million US dollars confiscated and shared across borders.
- Supported effective cooperation between Colombia and Guernsey, enabling the identification, freezing, confiscation and repatriation of illicit assets through mutual legal assistance.
- Turned a complex transnational case into a practical precedent, generating lessons and good practices to strengthen future international asset recovery efforts
The situation
Asset recovery depends not only on national laws and investigative capacity, but also on effective cooperation between countries holding evidence or assets. Transnational cases are often legally complex and operationally sensitive, particularly when they rely on non-conviction based confiscation. Successful cooperation in such cases can set important precedents, opening the door to future asset recoveries and returns.
What we did
The International Centre for Asset Recovery, a specialised centre of the Basel Institute on Governance, supported cooperation between authorities in Colombia and Guernsey in the Don Efra case. This was a landmark international asset recovery linked to Colombia’s non-conviction based forfeiture regime, Extinción de dominio.
On 30 November 2023, a Colombian court ordered the non-conviction based forfeiture of funds held in a trust account in Guernsey, amounting to GBP 361,146. The court found that the assets were proceeds of drug trafficking committed by Efraín Antonio Hernández Ramírez, known as “Don Efra”, a notorious cartel leader in the 1990s, and his former spouse.
Following mutual legal assistance proceedings between both jurisdictions, Colombia and Guernsey concluded an asset-sharing agreement in London on 30 January 2025, ordering the repatriation of the confiscated assets.
The impact
Guernsey’s confiscation of nearly half a million US dollars in criminal proceeds on behalf of Colombia set an important precedent. It marked Colombia’s first successful international asset recovery based on its non-conviction based forfeiture law and demonstrated that such measures can be enforced effectively across borders.
The case also strengthened operational cooperation between the two jurisdictions. Early and trust-based coordination enabled the identification, freezing, confiscation and repatriation of the assets, while overcoming legal and institutional challenges. The success adds to recent international enforcement of Extinción de dominio decisions by authorities in Peru and Guatemala.
Wider context
Beyond the recovery itself, ICAR supported the extraction of key lessons from the case through a dedicated practitioner-focused case study. The takeaways highlight the decisive role of early international cooperation, the importance of identifying beneficial ownership, the value of direct enforcement of foreign confiscation orders and the role of asset-sharing agreements and international standards in strengthening cooperation incentives. By documenting good practices and challenges, the case contributes to wider learning and more effective international asset recovery in future cases.
Through ICAR, the Basel Institute provides training and support on international cooperation and mutual legal assistance to both victim states and international financial centres. We support multiple transnational cases of corruption and other serious financial crimes.