Set in Hamburg, West Germany, several criminals take advantage of the German bank privacy laws to use safe deposit boxes in a German bank to store large amounts of illicit cash.

This emphasis on illicit cash proved to be a winning effort, for nothing infuriated the law-abiding populace more than the image of the millionaire crack dealer.

American officials say it is fairly easy, although risky, to conceal large amounts of illicit cash inside cars and tractor trailers, often packed inside legitimate merchandise, and get it across busy border crossing sites.

But it differs only in degree from other affidavit anecdotes about a world drowning in illicit cash.

They say that banks, boutiques, businesses, sports betting parlors - almost all forms of private enterprise - are being used to turn illicit cash into tangible, legitimate assets.

The Salvadorans have also bristled at theories put forward by Guatemalan investigators that the congressmen might have been carrying drugs or illicit cash.

Mr. Gately hoped his source could infiltrate that system - collecting illicit cash from drug wholesalers in the United States and then wiring it to corrupt bankers in Mexico.

Even in a regime awash in illicit cash, that was serious money.

He has shown undue enthusiasm for manipulating the news media and spending wads of illicit cash to ensure his side's electoral victories - not just in the December parliamentary elections, but also in 1996 when his own re-election was at stake.

Law enforcement officials say auto dealerships have been widely used by drug traffickers as a way of disposing of large amounts of illicit cash.