[svacko]

> The answer is to solve the underlying problem. Do the opposite on the supply side; increase competition so much that nobody is making any money at all. Decriminalization. And then address the problem on the demand side through regulation and treatment programs etc. rather than prohibition.

Problem with this statement is it's not only about drugs. Yesterday it was heroine/cocaine, today the cartels are laundering avocados, tomorrow it can be whatever else high-demand product of the western world that is available in Americas. The mafia cartels will always find a new field to profit from.

[mschuster91]

> The mafia cartels will always find a new field to profit from.

Only if they are finding people to work for them. Mafia and other organized crime thrives in areas of weak and/or authoritarian government and poverty since they can lure young people, most often men, with the promise of luxury and riches while at the same time being certain they won't get into too much trouble with the authorities (or can bribe them off if need be).

Remember that mafia started in Sicily (Italy) back in the 19th century when the central government was not much a thing and feudal landlords organized "security" on plantations in exchange for protection money from small farmers.

The solution to get rid of the mafia or at least drastically cut their influence is to strengthen civil society, democracy and governments in plagued regions. Unfortunately, the general trend is exactly the opposite with many governments that have been weak before corona hit now getting absolutely destroyed.

[WalterBright]

Ending Prohibition saw a vast reduction in crime.

[coldtea]

In between-gang crime, which is not really relevant...

[enkid]

Yes it is...

[Nextgrid]

> tomorrow it can be whatever else high-demand product of the western world that is available in Americas

Would that be bad though? That's just the market at work. If crimes are being committed (such as stealing the to-be-resold goods, etc) then go after it but otherwise I see no problem with cartels reinventing themselves as somewhat-legitimate businesses.

[nl]

Human trafficking is a major source of laundered money.

https://ngm.com.au/money-laundering-human-trafficking/

https://www.state.gov/report-to-congress-on-an-analysis-of-a...

[enkid]

We're only talking about money that is being generated by crime. That is the purpose of money laundering. If the produce they were selling was procured legally, they wouldn't need to launder the money.

[egorfine]

> they wouldn't need to launder the money

This may be the case if you're looking from a first-world standpoint.

There are too many shithole countries with governments so corrupt or tax system so disfunct that any money generated could not be legalized in the eyes of US regulators.

Someone who's not me lives and works in one of those countries doing 100% legal and clear business (think software development or furniture manufacturing). This person is forced to acquire money laundering services.

Do you have any problem opening a company in Singapore with bank account in Switzerland? For a US citizen this is a matter of days if not hours and with no problem whatsoever.

This used to be possible for people of my country, albeit it took weeks. Now it is impossible. Banks all over the world refuse to open accounts for companies whose founders come from my country, no matter how good is the reputation. Opening a US company? Not even on the table.

Can someone open a local company and bank account? Sure. But nobody in the world is going to wire money there just because of the same reasons. And even if they did, this someone would have not much less problems legalizing the incoming wire transfer in the eyes of the local banks and would be eventually fucked up by local financial monitoring authority anyway. They want you to be in the dark.

At this point you may be imagining some african desert with dust in the wind and eeries silence around with rare beaten up toyota pickup trucks passing by on the lone road. But that's not the case. If you google "<my city> skyline" you would find pictures looking no different than Manhattan.

TL;DR: AML/KYC laws not only make criminal transactions hard, they make small business lives outside of the US even harder. These laws deepen the trench of the Global Digital Divide[1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_digital_divide