Each year, money launders funnel $2 trillion in ill-gotten gains into the financial system.

And a lot of that money travels by air, in cash, often in people’s suitcases, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Sunday (April 21).

The report cited figures from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) showing that international air travelers likely move hundreds of billions in laundered funds in cash each year.

According to the report, this rise in airline smuggling is the result of banks stepping up their suspicious transaction monitoring in the wake of money-laundering scandals.

“You just can’t walk into a bank with this much money without being flagged,” George Voloshin, of ACAMS, a money laundering watchdog group, told WSJ. “You will be arrested at the next branch.”

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