clipped from: amfix.blogs.cnn.com   
Official: Drug lords using ‘gift cards’ to smuggle money

Lawmakers say gift card technology is now making it easier for drug lords to move cash across the border undetected. These ’stored value instruments’ are often issued by offshore banks and allow large sums of money to be moved throughout the world. Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard spoke to Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Wednesday.

Chetry: So you’re talking about gift cards, these blank cards that can be preloaded with large amounts of cash. How do they cash it in once they get across the border?

Under U.S. law, these cards, however much they may be worth are not considered financial instruments. T
And they can’t read them, which is a big problem. Basically we need to have transparency so that if a law enforcement agency looks at one of these cards, he or she knows how much it is worth.
This isn’t your Starbucks or Best Buy gift cards. What we’re talking about here are stored value instruments, which have chips in them