MONEY LAUNDERING Putting an Ear To the Wires

Over the past two weeks, U.S. law-enforcement authorities have seized almost 35 tons of cocaine destined for the streets of America. A much bigger blow could be struck against the drug trade, however, if ways could be found to seize the cocaine cartels’ funds. U.S. Assistant Treasury Secretary Salvatore Martoche said last week that the Bush Administration would move in that direction by trying to track the billions of dollars in electronic money transfers that move in and out of the U.S. each day. The goal: to identify and perhaps confiscate at least some of the more than $100 billion in drug funds laundered through the international banking system each year. Finance experts have long called for increased surveillance of so-called wire transfers. The task will be daunting because $1 trillion or more moves through banking wires each day, and the Government lacks the resources to monitor it all.