NCJ Number
150491
Date Published
1994
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Annual revenues from cocaine trafficking are estimated at $29 billion in the United States alone, and law enforcement officials are increasingly targeting the financial networks of drug cartels to prevent illegal money from entering the international banking system.
Abstract
Drug cartels employ innovative techniques to conceal the source and destination of funds, including the use of coffee exports, car dealerships, insurance annuities, and construction projects. In response, law enforcement has focused on money laundering. For example, a 3-year project initiated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 1989, Operation Green Ice, lured money launderers into using a phony leather goods company with a string of warehouses in major U.S. cities to conceal international money transfers. In the 8 years since money laundering has become a Federal crime in the United States, the cost of money laundering has risen from 6 to 26 percent. Through a combination of revoking visas to the United States and threatening to embarrass legitimate bank clients, foreign bankers have slowly been persuaded to avoid international drug cartels. Stages in the money laundering process are described, as well as provisions of the proposed Money Laundering Suppression Act of 1994 and Operation Royal Flush, a code name for identifying and neutralizing leading Colombian money launderers. The influence of the United States on international criminal law enforcement and drug interdiction and United Nations (UN) conventions and activities related to drug trafficking are discussed. Prospects for a global bank police force, perhaps under UN auspices, are assessed.