i find that our culture has been fooled by TV shows.

In TV shows, the drug smugglers show up to the deal with a briefcase of white powder and the other side shows up with a briefcase of money.

Nothing is further from the truth.

Semi-truck loads of white powder drive into a big city EVERY day.
And about that size of cash gets laundered EVERY day.

Bitcoin's entire market cap isn't big enough to handle a percentage of that flow of cash.

Only the biggest banks can handle that.
And they do. And they have been busted for it and fined for it. (and continue to do it)

When thinking of drug money laundering, think in terms of the entire CIA annual budget.