The technique catalog
Each entry follows the same arc: what it is, how it works, the red flags, and how it gets caught.
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Black Market Peso Exchange
A peso broker buys a cartel's US drug dollars at a discount and uses them to pay US exporters for Latin American importers, who repay the broker in pesos at home.
Layering Trade Classic -
Cash-intensive front businesses
A real-looking business that handles lots of cash books criminal money as sales, banks it, and pays tax on it, buying the money a legitimate history.
PlacementIntegration Cash Classic -
Casinos and gambling
Dirty cash buys chips; minimal play and a cash-out turn it into documented gambling proceeds, a source of funds banks rarely question.
PlacementLayering Gambling Classic -
Chain-hopping and cross-chain bridges
Swapping illicit crypto across blockchains through bridges and no-KYC swap services so that no single chain's analytics tell the whole story.
Layering Crypto Modern -
Flying money: Chinese underground banks
Chinese underground banks match cartel cash in the US with Chinese clients who want dollars outside China's capital controls: two mirrored payments, and no money crosses a border.
Layering Informal value transfer Classic -
Hawala and informal value transfer
Moving value across borders through trusted brokers who pay out locally and settle with each other later: no money actually crosses, and no transaction record exists.
Layering Informal value transfer Classic -
Mixers, tumblers, and CoinJoin
Services that pool many users' coins and pay out equivalent amounts from the pool, breaking the on-chain link between where crypto came from and where it went.
Layering Crypto Modern -
Money mules and funnel accounts
Recruited or deceived account holders receive and forward criminal money, so the bank's customer checks land on a real person who isn't the criminal.
PlacementLayering Banking Modern -
Real estate
Parking illicit funds in property through shell companies, trusts, and all-cash purchases, then drawing the money back out as clean-looking rent or resale proceeds.
Integration Assets Classic -
Shell companies and nominees
Companies with no real operations hold accounts and assets while nominee directors and stacked ownership across jurisdictions hide the true beneficial owner.
Layering Banking Classic -
Stablecoins and OTC brokers
Moving illicit value through dollar-pegged stablecoins (above all USDT on Tron) and converting it to cash through over-the-counter brokers and guarantee marketplaces with little or no KYC.
PlacementLayering Crypto Modern -
Structuring (smurfing)
Splitting cash into deposits just below the reporting threshold so no single transaction triggers a currency report.
Placement Cash Classic -
Trade-based money laundering
Moving value across borders through trade paperwork: over- or under-invoicing goods, double-invoicing shipments, or invoicing shipments that never happened.
Layering Trade Classic