HSBC, a bank that has branches on most high streets in Britain, has been laundering drug money ($7 billion from Mexican cartels – amongst other naughty proceeds), and its executives are very, very sorry. I bet they are! Although, that said, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation has prior form on this, if you count the Chinese opium trade, which it financed.
As was pointed out before, the drug trade is a profitable business. Estimates suggest it accounts for at least 1% of global GDP. That may not sound like much (though $3-400 billion sounds more tasty) but 1% is where many significant profit margins are poised right now.
This is, of course, the logical result of neo-liberal “light-touch” regulation combined with the capitalist prerogative of competitive accumulation. It begs a question. The ruling class is like a tightly knotted fist. From warmongering politicians, to scabby print-barons, to corrupt cops, to light-fingered bankers, they are in it together and they look after their own. Behind every great fortune lies a great crime. Given they are depraved and decadent, even by their own standards, shouldn’t we just lock up every rich person and throw away the key? If we let them out they’ll only do it again.