Tens of billions smuggled south each year

Brady McCombs
Posted: Friday, March 26, 2010 7:00 am

The National Drug Intelligence Center's 2010 Drug Threat Assessment estimates that at least tens of billions of dollars are annually smuggled out of the country in bulk cash. Here's an excerpt from the "Illicit Finance" section, which can be found on page 53 of the report:

"Tens of billions of dollars are laundered each year by drug traffickers operating in the United States. There are no current estimates for the annual amount of money either laundered domestically or smuggled out of the United States by DTOs. However, a 2007 NDIC study shows that from 2003 through 2004, at least $17.2 billion was smuggled into Mexico in bulk cash shipments alone."

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Here's a story from my colleague on the proposed legislation to close a loophole that allows people to put as much money as they want on stored-value cards:

By Stephen Ceasar

Arizona Daily Star

New legislation aimed at closing a federal loophole that allows drug cartels to move large amounts of money across the border on stored-value cards was introduced to Congress Thursday.

The cards aren’t currently classified under federal law as a “monetary instrument,â€