The typical money laundering scheme involves four independent phases, including placement, layering, integration, and legitimization. These processes are illustrated by various case examples, some of which involve the traditional tourist illegal drug consumer market, cartel investments in legitimate markets, the Italian Mafia connection through the European market, capital movement in the Caribbean, and the exploitation by drug traffickers of the U.S. Postal System in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The removal of trade barriers and the emergence of the Caribbean Basin regional commerce open opportunities for further encroachment and exploitation. The U.S. is applying the kingpin strategy to break the weakest link in the trafficking chain, i.e., the financial network. By denying ringleaders the proceeds of the illegal market and prosecuting intermediate and high-level cells of the financial transaction pyramid, law enforcement can strike at the command and control centers of organized crime. 57 notes