Cite as: 524 U. S. 1 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
proper because the mailings were completed in that State. By contrast, the counts here at issue allege no conspiracy, but describe activity in which Cabrales alone engaged. Nor do they charge that she dispatched any missive from one State into another; instead, they portray her and the money she deposited and withdrew as moving inside Florida only. Finally, the Court rejects the Government's contention that efficiency warrants trying Cabrales in Missouri because evidence there, and not in Florida, shows that the money she allegedly laundered derived from unlawful activity. The Government is not disarmed from showing that Cabrales is in fact linked to the drug trafficking. She can be, and indeed has been, charged with conspiring with the drug dealers in Missouri. If the Government can prove the agreement it has alleged in Count I, Cabrales can be prosecuted in Missouri for that confederacy, and her Florida money laundering could be shown as overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy. See § 371. As the Government acknowledged, the difference in her sentence probably would be negligible. Pp. 6-10.
109 F. 3d 471 and 115 F. 3d 621, affirmed.
Ginsburg, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.
Malcolm L. Stewart argued the cause for the United States. With him on the briefs were Solicitor General Waxman, Acting Assistant Attorney General Keeney, Deputy Solicitor General Dreeben, and Daniel S. Goodman.
John W. Rogers, by appointment of the Court, 522 U. S. 1106, argued the cause and filed a brief for respondent.*
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court. This case presents a question of venue, specifically, the place appropriate for trial on charges of money laundering in violation of 18 U. S. C. § 1956(a)(1)(B)(ii) (conducting a financial transaction to avoid a transaction-reporting requirement) and § 1957 (engaging in a monetary transaction in criminally derived property of a value greater than $10,000). The laundering alleged in the indictment occurred entirely in Florida. The currency purportedly laundered derived
*Steven Wisotsky and Lisa B. Kemler filed a brief for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers as amicus curiae urging affirmance.
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