The legitimisation of 'dirty' funds through their manipulation - laundering - into 'clean' funds is a central preoccupation of any drugs organisation. They are only in the business to make huge amounts of money as quickly as possible in order to minimise the risk of their discovery. The sort of monies we are talking about here are in the region of $150 billion a year: money laundering is a serious business and as such is targeted by drug enforcement bodies around the world. As the UK police observe: "Money laundering; a collateral industry that operates to support drugs trafficking. One industry cannot exist without the other."

Groupe d'Action FinanciÀre Internationale, GAFI, report on world economic matters. In their opinion 80% of the world's drugs money made by the major international criminal organisations is laundered for other uses. In addition to trafficking profits are the interest payments that these sums accrue over time. Taking that into account and given steady accumulation of wealth by the world criminal fraternity, the amounts of money involved in drug investments could be as much as $1 trillion.

Banks involved in laundering make a 10% profit on their service to drugs groups and when up to $100bn is laundered each year 10% becomes a very attractive proposition. The result of this high earning financial crime is an intensified effort by responsible governments to curtail laundering activities. The EU, under COM 91 182 follows the spirit in Article 5 of the 1988 UN Convention on drugs and illicit substances. Under the decision money laundering was criminalised, account holders had to be identified and financial institutions were held accountable for their involvement in financial crime. Gone are the days when the Caribbean and South America were the only areas to launder money. Swiss banks were involved in laundering drugs money as the Swiss Parliamentary Enquiry demonstrated. The Bank of Credit and Commerce International pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering and bad practice in the late 1980s. General Noriega was discovered to have had suspect accounts at the BCCI London branch in October 1985 following a raid by UK Customs. A vast money laundering network involving the Colombian cartels, Noriega and the BCCI London branch was later uncovered. The Judiciary Sub-Committee of the United States Senate on Crime and Criminal Justice investigated the implications of the BCCI scandal and found serious deficiencies in the co-ordination between the different specialised services. The Committee noted at the time that "it seems that few mechanisms are in place to ensure either a sharing of information across law enforcement agencies in different jurisdictions or a flow of information upward to the decision makers." This was one of the spurs that led to the JHA law enforcement co-operation Articles of recent EU treaties.

In Switzerland, Luxembourg and other European countries, including the UK and France, more strict legislative measures have been introduced to reinforce the efforts of those fighting against money laundering. Some countries, notably Germany, took longer to conform to the stricter rules of the European directives. In the EU money laundering as a criminal offence. In certain European countries, notably the United Kingdom, legislation acknowledges the international nature of drugs trafficking and permits investigation of the origin of suspected drug money. From here seizure of funds can be imposed where the relevant agreements exist.

The operation of the Drug Trafficking Offences Act, 1986 shows the problems involved in identifying money launderettes. With so many accounts and so many branches of banks discovering launderers proved difficult. The reinvestment of unlawfully obtained capital is the final objective of money launderers. Favourite investments include, (but are not exclusive to) the gambling and authorised betting sector where controls are fairly loose. Another attractive investment target is provided by companies on the verge of insolvency, whatever their corporate objects, because they are willing to accept the investments of which they are in dire need to keep them buoyant.

The reality of action against money laundering is that no amount of stringent legislation can prevent it taking place. As a result the only realistic treatment of this problem is to make the banking system as transparent as possible and to employ methods making detection easier.