Abstract
Despite the significant amount of attention and resources invested into the global anti-money laundering (AML) regime, there is a dearth of empirical studies on the role of money-launderers in illicit markets. This research tests two primary justifications of AML policy: 1) most money-launderers would not be detected through criminal investigations of predicate crimes and organized crime groups; and, 2) professional money-launderers play an important role in illicit markets and criminal networks. We extracted information about money-launderers in the drug market from police intelligence reports over a three-year period. Social network analysis was used to assess the positional importance of the launderers. The results show that most individuals are self-laundering, and relative to other market roles, launderers are not particularly central players. Policy implications for AML enforcement are discussed.
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