Analysis: Losing the War on Drugs During the Nixon era, the
importance of following the money became apparent in the drug
war. The 1970 Bank Secrecy Act was designed to give criminal
investigators better tools to identify proceeds from the sale of
illicit narcotics. But while drug interdiction continues to
receive recognition and scrutiny, the asymmetric financial
battles receive surprisingly little attention. Criminals traffic
in narcotics as a means to an end -- money. The collective
federal, state, local and international record on following
dirty money, stopping illicit proceeds and punishing money
launderers is abysmal. Government data on illicit financial
networks have been notoriously imprecise and lacking, but
startling nonetheless. The United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime estimates that $1.6 trillion -- 2.7 percent of global
gross domestic product -- was laundered in 2009. Financial flows
related to drug trafficking and other related transnational
organized crime have been pegged at $580 billion.