DRUG BUSTS

HOW THE WAR ON DRUGS IS HURTING YOUR BUSINESS

Eric Sterling

Some of your competitors have an unfair advantage because they launder
drug money. To launder drug money, drug traffickers need business allies
to move cash into the financial system. High volume cash businesses are
ideal agents to hide drug money. The restaurant industry is a $476
billion a year industry, involving hundreds of billions in cash. Banks
expect restaurants to make large cash deposits daily. A restaurant used
to launder money includes in its daily deposit the cash from drug sales.
This gets drug money into the monetary system. The money laundering
restaurant does not need to make a profit on the meals it sells, because
selling meals is not its primary business. Therefore it can charge less
than you do, taking your customers, weakening your revenues, and making
it harder to make a profit.

Your business may have a line of credit to finance your inventory. You
probably took loans to open your business and to obtain a building, and
now you have loans and a mortgage to pay every month. You can't escape
that "nut." But some of your competitors never have to worry about their
debt.

Businesses established with laundered drug proceeds do not need
legitimate sources of credit. Businesses financed with laundered funds
merely create the illusion that they were financed with legitimate funds
– but these are "loans" that never have to be repaid. The drug
traffickers' goal is to operate apparently legitimate businesses that
generate for them a "visible means of support," enabling them to pay
taxes and avoid suspicion.

Many money laundering businesses would fail if they were strictly a
legitimate business, but subsidized with drug cash, they continue to
compete with you.

http://www.business-council.org/BCPS_ElevenWays.pdf