Why do drug dealers have to clean their money?
The reason why criminals and terrorist groups need to launder their funds is to legitimise them, before introducing them into the financial system as legal currency. Money laundering and drugs have historically had a close link. Why does drug money need to be cleaned? Money obtained from certain crimes, such as extortion, insider trading, drug trafficking, and illegal gambling is "dirty" and needs to be "cleaned" to appear to have been derived from legal activities, so that banks and other financial institutions will deal with it without suspicion.