Most organised crime groups, especially those who earn their illicit profits from narcotics smuggling or retail drug sales, have a huge surplus of cash that simply must be placed into the legitimate economy for two reasons:

• First, to start it on the road towards becoming lawful funds upon which there is absolutely no association with the unsavory criminal origins.
• Second, to convert it from actual cash money into assets of a business. Bulk cash criminal profits are at risk of seizure by law enforcement, embezzlement by greedy associates who may want a particular high-end, luxury consumer item, and even outright theft by low-level organisation members needing fast cash for their expensive and daily drug use. Also, criminal groups are not known for their ability to account for, track, and efficiently preserve, cash profits.

So, where did my clients drop their drug profits? Generally in either cash-intensive businesses, where payment is made traditionally by cash, and into vehicles where the value of the items would not generally be known to law enforcement.

Some of the "investments" made by my clients included:

• A popular upscale restaurant, which they purchased and turned into a luxurious facility. It was later listed as being the 6th-highest grossing restaurant in the United States, mainly due to padding each night's receipts with drug money. Years later, I learned that law enforcement. then investigating this organisation, actually took down the automobile number plates of everyone who attended the gala opening, in the hopes of acquiring the identities of additional associates and suppliers of the group. No, I was not at the opening; thanks for asking.
• An automotive store that specialised in sports cars, parts and accessories. In that industry, everybody pays cash.  After the arrests, I went in there with some of the organisation's people, and we saw a number of Corvette wrecks out back. It would appear that they were using the vehicle identification numbers from  crashed cars to create clean automobile titles for other vehicles,(probably stolen cars) needing good papers. I know some of these cars were routinely shipped out of state.   
• Fine art and antiques, which can be generally purchased "off the books" for cash, displayed at the clients' homes or businesses (nobody, save experts, knows what they are worth) and later sold to an established, major dealer, who will give them a cheque for the items. After I was involved assisting on the law enforcement side of money laundering, I requested that they send agents to the two major Latin American art auctions conducted each year in New York. The people who attend those include a number of "culturally-minded" narcotraffickers, or persons acting on their behalf.
• Precious metals and rare coins, especially those containing gold or silver. These items are eminently portable, and they also are bought in an industry where most sales are for cash, and where keeping accurate sales records does not seem to be a priority. if you've ever wondered why law enforcement is always digging up the backyards of criminals they arrest, they are often looking for "buried treasure" that consists of precious metals, rare coins, and yes, sometimes bearer bonds. Gold processing facilities in Miami receive large amounts of gold shipped in from jewelers located in the Caribbean, which curiously has no gold mining industry. Where is all this gold coming from, and how did it get there?
• One client actually owned an organic farm in the upper Midwest, where he grew vegetables for the wholesale commercial market. Once every few weeks, however, he would don a chemical suit and proceed to manufacture a particularly potent for of crystal meth, commonly known as speed. He  actually had a formal university education as a chemist . He did, however, fail to dump a sufficient amount of his illegal profits into the farm's gross receipts, and he was to later serve a short term in federal prison for tax evasion.

Some businesses did double duty; they made money for the clients, but also were fronts that facilitated criminal activity. One such business was the private post office, allowed to operate on a limited basis as basically a place to have a post office box to receive mail, and to send out parcels. Even though government-issued IDs were required for new accounts, those documents often could not later be found when law enforcement came calling. It was a great place to send out packages outside the postal system, as Federal Express, UPS and other shippers had daily pick-ups, and back then, they didn't closely monitor the contents of their deliveries. 

One client purchased his private post office from another criminal organisation that had two in operation in Miami, ran it efficiently and lawfully, but accommodated all his criminal associates who needed a mail drop that would not be traceable to them. After quietly cooperating with law enforcement and receiving immunity for Grand Jury testimony, he sold out and left the state, never to return. I did locate him later, though, as his address was on his private pilot's license. Remember, if one is diligent anybody can be found, provided that they participate, even in a minor way, in the licensing and permit system that our government requires at the local, state or national level. That's how I found Pinochet's former banker, through his Florida real estate license.

Some of the schemes were, admittedly, spur-of-the-moment ideas not generally thought through, and those would either fail commercially (if you have no customers whatsoever, you cannot pump large amounts of money into it and call them sales), or the clients would lose interest and sell out to the first available purchaser. When a criminal has large amounts of cash lying around, impulse purchases, including business ventures, are more common than you might think. 

NEXT WEEK: Client profits draw law enforcement attention.