Money laundering, in its purest form, is all about turning dirty money into the clean variety.  

Some clients desired to take their drug profits and legitimise them in the United States. For that purpose, I had an arrangement with a trusted accountant. Here's how it worked; Let us refer to it as the commission salesman method:

• The accountant had a number of businesses as clients who maintained large amounts of inventory. Some were not doing particularly well in their sales divisions. In this particular case, it was a firm in the food service industry, where cash sales were the rule.
  

• The narcotics traffickers were hired on as commission salesmen at the company. Their rate was deliberately set within industry norms, so as to avoid drawing attention.
  

• That year, and the next, the "salesmen" enjoyed a spectacular year, as the company's records showed that they sold extremely large quantities of the food products to customers.

• Invoices, complete with purchase orders, were drafted in support of these bogus sales. The sales were ostensibly made to large corporations, and the records created to make verification of the exact order difficult or impossible, or there were overseas sales in primitive third world countries with bogus company names deceptively similar to those of major multinational corporations.

• The company happened to have large stocks of inventory on hand, meaning that a cursory walk-through of the warehouse by an inquiring law enforcement agent would not turn up anything suspicious.  

• The criminals later pay taxes on their "income" which is, in truth and in fact, drug cash delivered to the company, from which a fee is deducted, and the balance paid out by cheques as commissions. The salesmen conscientiously pay in their required quarterly advances on taxes, so as to avoid any unwanted Internal Revenue delinquency notices, and fines and penalties.
  

• The salesmen later took the cleaned funds, upon which tax had been paid, and bought a cash-intensive legitimate business. The leftover drug cash was dumped in the business, disguised as additional sales volume. A restaurant they purchased later made the list of the top ten grossing facilities in the nation. Another was an automotive parts company.
  

The traffickers took great pains to conduct their business in a low-profile, lawful manner, and after a time, they figured that the Statute of Limitations barred their prosecution for the original drug crimes. One even considered running for public office, a frightening thought.

Meanwhile, word of mouth concerning my abilities was making the rounds in the drug trafficking fraternity. I was to go to move cash for a diverse group of clients. Many narcotics traffickers bought and sold their "product" amongst themselves; smugglers sold wholesale to distributors, who in turn traveled throughout North America, to make contact with their retailers. Many traffickers did business, or socialised with my original clients, hence the referral business.

Some of the mixed bag of clients I picked up:

• Cuban-American brothers who were involved in smuggling since their teenage years. Starting out with marijuana, they made their fortune in cocaine, shipping their illicit wares via specially-constructed lorries with secret compartments, Their market reached from Miami all the way into Canada, and their profits reached $200m.  

• A Parisian who, with his Taiwanese wife, smuggled cocaine into the US hidden in Chinese junks ostensibly being imported to American customers. He perfected his operation whilst living in British Columbia.
  

• A Hollywood, California producer's son turned licensed ship's captain, who turned his nautical expertise into a fortune by smuggling drugs. His partner was a ship's cook he met on a research vessel off the coast of Jamaica. The commenced business on a shoestring, with a borrowed boat, and a loan for cash to buy the drugs overseas.
  

• A graduate chemist from North Dakota who, from time to time, manufactured a particularly pure and potent form of methedrine on his organic farm.

• A short-of-stature Miami photographer whose obsession was drug smuggling and tall women.
  

• An Ohio schoolteacher who went on to become a pilot after a successful career as a a drug dealer and wholesaler.  

• A Midwest transporter whose wife was in the Social Register. He delivered his product long-distance from Florida in his Jaguar.
  

NEXT WEEK:We shall cover the money laundering services I provided to these traffickers, and  what ultimately happened to them.