OK, I read it again and stand corrected. There are mentions of terrorism and drug dealing.
I don’t know how I missed those.
I guess my main point was that “hawala” (Chinese “fei chen”, Western “remittances”) per se is innocuous.
I will only note that it was the informant who brought up the drug dealing angle (saying that’s where the money came from), not the money remitters. It was the informant’s (false) cover story.
The point was they let the guy know where the money came from so he was a willing money launderer. Of course, he already knew what type of money he was moving around, that’s why they charged a couple hundred grand to move 2 million out of the country.