What's a fun loving criminal going to do about getting his money cleaned? The cost of a full blown money laundering operation is both very expensive (at up to 40% of value) and rife with uncertainties and betrayals.
Now there have always been ways of means for criminals to turn stolen goods into hard cash .... the good old fashioned 'fence' (or sometime pawn broker), would take stolen items and offer the thief a percentage of the perceived cash value in the hope of later recouping a greater value themselves and thus making their profit on the deal.
