Nick Shaxson ■ Quote of the day – Luxembourg and the drugs trade

Quote of the day – Luxembourg and the drugs trade

Published:

6 November 2014

Reading time:

< 1 min

Tags:

Blog

From a Guardian story about the ICIJ Luxembourg story that’s broken today:

“Asked recently if such a crackdown risked damaging the economy of Luxembourg, one senior figure closely involved in the G20 reform programme said: “I don’t care. It is like saying: ‘If you fight drugs there will be no jobs in certain parts of Mexico.’”

Well put.

The author

Nick Shaxson

Nicholas Shaxson is a journalist and writer on the staff of Tax Justice Network. He is author of the book Poisoned Wells about the oil industry in Africa, published in 2007, and the more recent Treasure Islands: Tax havens and the Men who Stole the World, published by Random House in January 2011. He lives in Berlin.

See author’s full profile

Related articles

The UN Secretariat Headquarters building in New York

UN tax convention hub – updates & resources

By Mark Bou Mansour ■ 12 November 2025 ■ < 1 min READ

The European Court of Human Rights has upheld the weaponisation of privacy to restrict tax authorities’ access to banking data

By Andres Knobel ■ 17 June 2026 ■ 6 min READ

Lucy_Nyangasi, a domestic worker in Kenya

She cleans your house but the tax system can’t see her

By Lyla Latif ■ 17 June 2026 ■ 7 min READ

What we learned from three years of conversations on poverty beyond growth

By Carolina Rodrigues Finette ■ 10 June 2026 ■ 3 min READ

Q&A on California’s proposed legislation on Worldwide Combined Reporting (WWCR)

By Tax Justice Network
27 May 2026

California steps up for tax fairness

By Alex Cobham ■ 27 May 2026 ■ 10 min READ

A statue of lady justice holding scales and a sword

Finally, the European Court of Justice cracks down on trusts

By Andres Knobel ■ 21 May 2026 ■ 6 min READ

Joint submission: International financial architecture, debt and the right to education

By Carolina Rodrigues Finette, Ashina Mtsumi, Nelsy Lizarazo, Mahfouz Raffee, Juana Barragan Diaz, Naomi Majale, Israel Quirino
20 May 2026

Financial secrecy has entered the EU AML rulebook. What comes next?

By Markus Meinzer ■ 14 April 2026 ■ 6 min READ

UN Tax Convention: Summary of the Tax Justice Network’s stakeholder input after the Fourth Session of negotiations

By Bob Michel ■ 3 April 2026 ■ 4 min READ

Taxing Ethiopian women for bleeding

By Bemnet Agata ■ 5 March 2026 ■ 4 min READ