Amy( not her real name) became one of those too many somebodies in the now-too-common death tolls from overdoses. The only thing her family and friends are left to cling to is that this was accidental from a poorly and negligently mixed batch of fentanyl and not an intentional escape from a depressive bump in life. With addiction, those lines too often become blurred. In these all-too-frequent scenarios, the bad guys make a profit from the misery of so many impacted by the tragedy and loss. The survivors and law enforcement( LE) alike are both left seeking answers and hoping for some kind of justice.
For the police, the inquiry is about the supplier of the drug and just how much negligence can be proven in providing the deadly drug mix. The last activities on Amy’ s smartphone were text messages and missed calls from family and friends, mostly asking why she was not responding. The last text she was known to have sent was to someone listed in her phone as“ Jack” reflecting that he would be meeting her shortly. Just prior to that, Jack had acknowledged he received from her a $ 40 peer-to-peer( P2P) payment. Several similar text messages preceded that one in the text chain on Amy’ s phone. Some of those included parachutes and box emojis. The police know those emojis commonly translate as drug delivery requests.
Welcome to the new world of anti-money laundering( AML), where the money movement speaks louder than ever before and produces incredibly valuable evidence. It is also a world where LE is not always listening as much as they should. The AML / Bank Secrecy Act( BSA) investigative methods and efforts that worked before phones became“ smart” and banks became mostly virtual has resulted in a new slang language that was not part of the old ways. The new ways are a work in progress and evolving as technology evolves. Those old folding maps can still get you there, but GPS has turned them into antiques seemingly overnight. In the AML / BSA world, technology and fintech have done the same for analyzing financial transactional data.
ACAMS Today | September – November 2025 19