The arrest of major traffickers, for violations of Federal criminal law, often means pre-trial confinement, and not bond (bail) pending their trial. This is because the law allows a District Judge to detain the offender when:

• The offender is believed to be a danger to the community. Narcotics trafficking on a large scale means sales to consumers, and this will often be regarded as sufficient danger to the public. Also, many drugs defendants are arrested in possession of firearms, firearms were involved in some aspect of their criminal conduct, or firearms are seized during post-arrest searches of their homes, businesses, automobiles, vessels or aircraft.
  

• There is a real risk of flight. Since many senior narcotics traffickers are trans-national businessmen, and are wealthy, they have both the means and the experience to engage in international travel to avoid prosecution and conviction for narco-felonies.

This, we have the offender in custody until his trial, which, in the absence of some extraordinary event, will result in his conviction and imprisonment for many years. he's what that means:

• The defendant has supplied a number of individuals or organisations, further down the supply route, in his normal daily operation.
  

• Once sold, the defendant's "clients" are reluctant to deliver the money to anyone but the man in chage, who won't be back on the street for years, possibly decades if he was selling large amounts of narcotics.
  

• There is a real fear on behalf of the clients that the defendant may decide to cooperate with the authorities, and delivering the funds to his lieutenants or subordinates (if they have not also been arrested) may incriminate them.
  

• Do not forget the absolute greed that permeates this sordid business. Such a fortuitous event, is often looked upon as a good business opportunity.

Therefore, compliance officers, who should be reading their local newspapers daily, please note that any report of an arrest, in your immediate region, of major narco-trafficking organisations, or individuals, most likely means that several criminals somewhere have a lot of extra cash. It may be turned over to a local laundryman, who will be looking to place that cash in a financial institution, before shipping it overseas.
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Personal Note from my laundering days: A client of mine, who was a prominent player in the Cocaine trade, once fled the country to avoid arrest, and one of his more honest customers actually sent me $25,000 to pass along to him. I was unable to do so, and later returned the money to its point of origin. To let you know about the pitfalls of such activities, a casual acquaintance of the client requested that I turn the money over to him. I declined, largely because the acquaintance disappeared for a couple of days, which could indicate that he was working with law enforcement. My hunch turned out to be right, because I later heard all those telephone conversations on a DEA tape recording turned over to me years later after my arrest. The acquaintance had been arrested in the Bahamas on a drug case, and he was working as a confidential informant for law enforcement. Money launderers face many such threats as they practise their trade. It is a business where you know you may be arrested at any time through the use of confidential informants or undercover agents of law enforcement.