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- GRAPEVINE, Page 15
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- By PAUL GRAY/Reported by David Ellis
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- RING AROUND THE MONEY. What country will replace Panama as
- the world's leading drug-money Laundromat? U.S. law-enforcement
- agencies are wondering, and so, evidently, are the cocaine
- cartels. Uruguay, with its stringent bank-secrecy laws, would
- seem a natural heir. But after Uruguayan officials extradited an
- accused money launderer and assured the U.S. of further
- cooperation, cartel financiers began scurrying for alternatives.
- Among the prospects being watched by investigators: Vanuatu, a
- Pacific island republic formerly known as the New Hebrides; the
- Cook Islands, a protectorate of New Zealand; and the island
- group of Palau, which is about to legalize gambling, a business
- that generates the kind of cash flow money washers love to swim
- in.
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