How it works is this: You have two businesses. One is illegal as hell (drugs, prostitution, etc). The other is a legitimate business, but no one cares if it makes money.
You take money that you earn selling drugs, and “buy” whatever the legitimate business is selling with it. Now the legitimate business has a record of a sale, and can point to the money given to it via the sale. You can even pay taxes on it. And now the money is clean because you earned it at your totally legitimate business selling totally legal things.
If a gas station charges a few tens of cents higher than everyone else, that’s just dumb business. When they charge over $1.00 higher than everyone else, then I would personally suspect either money laundering, or they’re really selling other things directly at the gas station, and the gas is a cover (i.e., buy 10 gallons of gas, get a ‘free’ 8-ball of heroin."
Gas stations actually do that all the time. Know those weird stupid looking fabric roses in glass tubes that you see at the register at a lot of gas stations? Yeah, that’s really a crack pipe. The rose is so the gas station can claim they’re selling gift items, not drug paraphernalia.
That’s gotta be a lot of work though generating fake invoices for products that can be checked and fake sales receipts from the public. Not many people pay in cash anymore at gas stations. Plus the whole federal and state taxes on each gallon is a clear audit trail. I can see a legitimate cash business but there is just a lot of paper trail generated at a gas station. I mean if you say you sold 2000 twinkies, you would need an invoice saying you bought them.
Not many people pay in cash anymore at gas stations.
I know I haven’t in well over 20 years. Most of the people who don’t pay at the pump are walking in to also by cigarettes. WE have several gas stations near me…where the little store is closed…but the pumps are still operating for pay-at-pump sales.
They aren’t selling gas or twinkies. The price is that high to make sure people don’t come and try to buy gas from them (which means they won’t come in looking to buy twinkies either). They’re selling “services.” Tows, tire changes, battery charging - - whatever they can claim they did and charged money for that they really didn’t do.
“Know those weird stupid looking fabric roses in glass tubes that you see at the register at a lot of gas stations? Yeah, that’s really a crack pipe. The rose is so the gas station can claim they’re selling gift items, not drug paraphernalia.”
Yikes!
Now I’m REALLY glad that I don’t wander into the retail stores at gas stations.