f laundering are untraceable. In fact, nearly every case in the United States in past few years has involved gold (Kaplan). For drug cartels this has become a dumping ground of profit. The reason is because most of the gold traded today is in the form of cash, and cash is untraceable. The majority of the gold industry is made up of small independent companies who prefer to deal with cash. Since drugs and other criminal activity is done mostly in cash, it is very simple for a person to buy a large amount of gold without anybody ever knowing the transaction took place. Now that law enforcement and customs have caught on to this form of laundering, drug cartels are beginning to disguise the gold. Today, criminals are importing gold plated bronze, while others are exporting the gold disguised as another type of metal. Another form of laundering money that is used is through the Black Market Peso Exchange. This form of laundering money into the United States is predominantly used by Columbian drug cartels. The Black Market Peso Exchange is a system to bypass reporting requirements set in place by the Bank Secrecy Act (U.S. Customs). This system works is a six-stage process. First, the Columbian drug cartels export the illegal narcotics to the United States. Dealers then sell the narcotics on the street for cash. The cartel then contacts a third party broker to launder the money for them. This third party broker will enter into a contract with the Columbian drug cartel. In this contract the broker agrees to exchange pesos he controls in Columbia for U.S. dollars the cartel controls in the United States. As soon as this exchange occurs, the cartel has effectively laundered their money and is out of the Black Market Peso Exchange. The broker now uses contracts that he has established in the United States to place the drug money he has purchased form the cartel into the United States banking system. Because the broker uses these contracts he no...
