I would guess that in every major city that at least 25% or more of the restaurants and bars are money laundering operations.
Right here in Nashua, NH I can think of two major companies that were owned by drug dealers. One was the local Burger King. The guy owned Burger Kings in Portland, Nashua and a Boston suburb. Major cocaine dealer. Now in prison.
The other was the most popular Mexican restaurant in town back in the 80s. It closed on a Saturday night. He was never seen again. Turned out he was a big coke dealer too.
The Mafia used to launder money thru Mom & Pop pizzerias. ....probably still do.................
Shocking that foreign nationals would even think to use a restaurant to launder money.
That is the domain of the Italians, at least in Boston. The cops probably got an anonymous tip somewhere along the line.
In most parts of Texas the Albanians own the “Italian” restaurants, and based on what I know of Albanian culture, I suspect that they don’t report their cash tips ... and then some.
There was an excellent noodle house in Southlake Texas that was closed when one of the owners was found to be laundering income from a massage parlor in Dallas.
While the noodles were really good, I never experienced THAT kind of a happy ending.
Restaurants typically have large cash deposits. If the owner adds 20% or 30% to the cash from other source, who would know? If you make the cash deposit $5000 instead of $4000 all year, you’ve legalized $300K in illegal profits.