They can't stop themselves

[Brad Dolan <bdolan@well.sf.ca.us>]

DRUG DEALERS EXPORT BILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO EVADE LAWS
ON CURRENCY REPORTING - Wall Street Journal 4/7/94

Washington - Drug smugglers are evading U.S. currency-reporting laws
by shipping billions of dollars out of the country, according to a
report released by the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on 
Investigations.

One of the most reliable methods used by the smugglers, according to
the report, is the U.S. mail.  Over 25 criminal organizations have 
been found mailing cash through a single, unidentified East Cost
airpor. U.S. Customs officials have been wrangling with the U.S.
Postal Service for almost two years on ways to get at the money by
changing the law so outgoing packages can be randomly inspected. But
the issue remains unresolved. [...]          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The report states that a recent, more agressive search experiment by
Customs, using dogs trained to sniff cash and other methods, more than
                                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
doubled the amount of cash seized during a five month period. [...]

"At the very least, the report's findings suggest it is time for all 
law-enforecement agencies to work together to plan and execute a
coordinated, long-range approach to address the money-laundering
problem," concluded Sen. Nunn.  The report was prepared for his
subcommittee by the General Accounting Office.

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(1) I don't need to comment on the trend toward random monitoring
of all activities of all citizen-units.

(2) Re. "other methods" Has anybody tried gamma or neutron activation 
analysis of currency?

bdolan@well.sf.ca.us