Interesting Facts

In the USA money laundering is called smurfing. (In the original series of the Smurfs, the little blue characters tended to replace a verb with some form of the word "smurf"; e.g. "I feel like smurfing some bread," instead of, "I feel like eating some bread". In the USA the DEA started using the word as a code for Structuring, the act of making money transfers repeatedly in small amounts to avoid suspicion.)

Wales holds the record for the number of people dressed up as Smurfs at any one time - 2,510, in Swansea. (The majority of the participants were students from the local university, and they crammed into the Oceana nightclub to almost double the previous record of 1,253.)

Over the last 3 years, the Smurfs have sold more than 10 million albums. (Who said the music industry was in trouble?)