Beyond Money Laundering: Connected (il)Licit Economies

The presentation argues that the notion of money laundering seems obsolete for analysing the intrinsic connections between contemporary illicit and licit economies, articulated on a global scale. Taking the cocaine value chain as a heuristic object, in the first part of the article I describe two usual routes for the transit of the drug, among thousands of others: the first exporting cocaine to France via French Guiana, and the second to West Africa via a Brazilian port. In the second part of the text, I demonstrate the forms of governance in this value chain, in eight specialised and professionalised management areas. In the third part, I discuss the ways in which the accumulation of this value chain is coordinated with an extensive series of legal businesses in the countries of origin, transit and destination. Fieldwork was carried out in different countries in Latin America, Africa and Europe between 2020 and 2024, with direct observations, interviews with different operators and access to police and justice documentation.