The International Criminal Police Organization — INTERPOL — coordinates police work across 196 member countries through one of its most visible tools: the system of international notices. These are colour-coded requests that one country’s police force circulates through INTERPOL’s General Secretariat in Lyon to police forces in every other member state. Each colour signifies a distinct purpose. As of 2025, there are eight notices in operation, seven of them colour-coded by function and one — the Interpol-United Nations Security Council Special Notice — issued jointly for sanctions enforcement.
The newest of these is the Silver Notice, launched as a pilot in January 2025 to address the increasingly transnational flow of criminal assets.
The eight notices
| Notice | Colour | Primary purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Red | Red corner | Seek the location and provisional arrest of a wanted person pending extradition |
| Blue | Blue corner | Collect additional information about a person’s identity, location, or activities |
| Black | Black corner | Seek information on unidentified bodies |
| Green | Green corner | Warn about a person’s criminal activities where the person is a likely threat to public safety |
| Yellow | Yellow corner | Help locate missing persons, often minors, or identify persons unable to identify themselves |
| Orange | Orange corner | Warn of an event, person, object, or process representing a serious and imminent threat to public safety |
| Purple | Purple corner | Provide or seek information on modus operandi, objects, devices, and concealment methods used by criminals |
| Silver | Silver (2025 pilot) | Trace, identify, and recover criminal assets located in other jurisdictions |
| UN Special Notice | — | Enforce sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council against listed individuals and entities |
What the Silver Notice does
The Silver Notice was piloted in January 2025 in response to the growing share of organised crime profits that move across borders — through real estate, shell companies, cryptocurrency, art and antiquities, and luxury goods. The pilot was launched with the cooperation of 52 member states and is initially limited to a fixed annual quota of notices while INTERPOL evaluates legal, evidentiary, and privacy implications.
A Silver Notice differs from the existing INTERPOL toolkit in one key respect: where Red, Blue, and Green Notices target *persons*, the Silver Notice targets *assets*. A member state’s national central bureau may request a Silver Notice to:
- Identify property located in another country that is believed to be the proceed of crime
- Trace its ownership and beneficial control
- Coordinate provisional measures (freezing, seizure) under the requesting state’s legal authority and the host state’s domestic law
- Support eventual confiscation and repatriation
The Silver Notice is not a binding order. It is an information-sharing instrument. Enforcement still depends on Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs), the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), and the host country’s domestic asset-recovery statutes.
How the Silver Notice fits the existing global asset-recovery architecture
Asset recovery has historically been the slowest and most fragmented dimension of transnational criminal cooperation. The principal instruments — the StAR Initiative (a UN-World Bank programme), the Camden Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network (CARIN), and bilateral MLATs — work through chains of formal legal requests that can take years. The Silver Notice attempts to inject the rapidity of INTERPOL’s information channels into the early stages of asset tracing, before final confiscation orders are sought.
India’s Enforcement Directorate and CBI have engaged with the pilot, and Indian authorities have noted that several Silver Notice requests would be relevant in fugitive economic offender cases under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018.
Black Notice — unidentified bodies
The Black Notice serves the opposite humanitarian function from the Yellow. Where Yellow is issued for *missing persons* (the body is missing and presumed alive), Black is issued for *unidentified bodies* (the body has been recovered but identity is unknown). Forensic data — fingerprints, DNA, dental records, tattoos, distinctive marks — are circulated across INTERPOL’s network to assist identification, often years after death. Black Notices have been particularly important in cross-border migration deaths in the Mediterranean and in trafficking investigations.
Blue Notice — collecting information
Blue Notices are the most procedurally light. A member state may request additional information about a person whose identity, location, or activities are relevant to a criminal investigation — but where the threshold for a Red Notice (formal arrest warrant pending extradition) has not been met. Blue Notices are commonly used to verify whether a suspect has travelled to a particular country, to confirm aliases, or to corroborate fragments of intelligence.
Green Notice — public safety warning
The Green Notice warns member states about persons whose criminal history suggests they may pose a continuing threat to public safety in other jurisdictions. Sex offenders, persons convicted of violent crimes who have completed sentences but are travelling internationally, and individuals associated with violent extremism are typical subjects. The Green Notice does not authorise arrest; it puts other police forces on notice.
Yellow Notice — missing persons
Yellow Notices help locate missing persons, often minors who may have been abducted, or adults who have disappeared without explanation. They also assist in identifying persons who are unable to identify themselves owing to amnesia, mental incapacity, or extreme trauma. The notices are widely used by national parental-abduction recovery units.
Orange Notice — imminent threat
The Orange Notice warns of an imminent threat to public safety — an event, a person, an object (an unidentified explosive device circulating in international transit, for example), or a process. These are time-sensitive and circulated with high urgency.
Purple Notice — modus operandi
The Purple Notice circulates technical information about criminal methods — the modus operandi of a particular network, devices used in attacks, concealment techniques, fraud patterns. The aim is to give investigators in other countries a reference for recognising the same hand at work.
Red Notice — the most-cited and most-misunderstood
The Red Notice is the most widely discussed because of its connection to extradition. It is *not* an international arrest warrant. It is a request to all member countries to locate and provisionally arrest a wanted person pending an extradition request from the requesting state. Each country decides whether to act on a Red Notice consistent with its domestic law. Many countries — including India in some cases — have refused to act on Red Notices where the underlying charges appear politically motivated.
The INTERPOL Constitution’s Article 3 explicitly forbids the organisation from taking part in any activities of a political, military, religious, or racial character, and the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files (CCF) reviews complaints from individuals subject to Red Notices that may violate this provision.
INTERPOL’s national interface in India
India’s national central bureau is the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which serves as the conduit for all INTERPOL notices and diffusions involving Indian law enforcement. Requests from state police forces are channelled through the CBI’s Interpol Division. CBI both issues Indian notices to INTERPOL and processes incoming notices from other countries.
In 2025-26, with the Silver Notice now operational, India has indicated that it intends to use the instrument for fugitive economic offender cases — Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and others whose criminal assets sit in multiple jurisdictions outside India.
FAQs
How many INTERPOL notices are there in 2025?
Eight: Red, Blue, Black, Green, Yellow, Orange, Purple, and the new Silver Notice (pilot launched January 2025). A ninth instrument — the INTERPOL-United Nations Security Council Special Notice — is issued jointly for UN sanctions enforcement.
What does a Silver Notice do?
Trace, identify, and coordinate the recovery of assets that are believed to be the proceeds of crime and located in another jurisdiction. It is the first INTERPOL notice that targets assets rather than persons.
When was the Silver Notice launched?
The pilot launched in January 2025 with the participation of approximately 52 member countries. INTERPOL is evaluating legal and evidentiary frameworks before deciding on a permanent rollout.
What is the difference between a Black Notice and a Yellow Notice?
Yellow Notice — missing persons (presumed alive). Black Notice — unidentified bodies (deceased, identity unknown).
What is the difference between a Blue Notice and a Red Notice?
Blue Notice — request for additional information about a person, no arrest sought. Red Notice — request for provisional arrest pending extradition, based on a valid arrest warrant from the requesting country.
Does a Red Notice authorise arrest in the receiving country?
No. A Red Notice is a request. Each country applies its own domestic law in deciding whether to act on it. Article 3 of the INTERPOL Constitution prohibits action on Red Notices that are political, military, religious, or racial in nature.
What is the Indian national central bureau for INTERPOL?
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). All Indian INTERPOL notices and diffusions are channelled through the CBI’s Interpol Division.
Can the Silver Notice freeze assets in another country?
Not directly. It is an information-sharing instrument that supports tracing and identification. Actual freezing or seizure requires authority under the host country’s domestic law and is usually pursued through Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties or the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
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