If you have studied the history of the Second World War whilst at university, you should recognize this icon of an essential aspect of that war which most people never think about; logistics. The Red Ball Express was an American truck convoy system which was the rapid delivery arm of the United States Army, to put supplies, especially ammunition and explosives, into the hands of frontline troops in combat against Nazi Germany in Western Europe. The truck drivers, mostly African-American soldiers, delivered the supplies, under what were often dangerous conditions. They are considered the unsung heroes of the war, receiving little acknowledgement either during, or after the war ended.

The Red Ball Express had significant casualties, with dozens of black drivers and assistant drivers killed or injured by enemy fire, land mines, aerial attacks, and accidents during its 82-day operation. While a specific total number of fatalities is not publicly known, the operation was crucial to Allied success but came at what has been described as significant human cost. They are the unsung heroes of the war. The poster I have attached is a warning to French civilians to stay off the designated highways the Red Ball drivers used to convey their essential military cargo; even civilian bicycle and pedestrian traffic was banned, because keeping the Red Ball rolling meant that drivers weren't about to yield the right of way, nor stop for accidents. Speed was essential.

As a career money launderer, I found that, if you established a working pipeline for the movement of the proceeds of crime through the global financial system, en route to a cleansing of the funds, which appeared to be immune from discovery and interdiction, due to their legitimate appearance, you would rinse and repeat the process. This is a vulnerability that alert compliance officers can exploit. Are you seeing a repeat pattern, spied during your transaction monitoring operations, that you believe possibly doesn't make commercial sense, or is inconsistent with the trade or business that is moving funds? If so, you may have stumbled upon a successful money laundering pipeline, some laundryman's personal version of the Red Ball, an illicit money flow rapidly flushing illicit finds through accounts at your financial institution.

The secret to a successful money laundering investigation is that, when you are examining a series of financial transactions, that you look at them from the perspective of someone tasked to make them look as legitimate as possible, and look for any chinks in the fact pattern, which might give you a clue that things are no what they seem to be. Good career money launderers will use a working pipeline through a bank ad nauseum. It is up to you to find the flaw.