I highly doubt Bitcoin is much used for laundering money, transactions are all happening in clear and if you try to hide traces by creating multiple addresses you are going destroy your capital in transfer fees (which are very high right now). It's clearly not the best currency to hide untraceable money.
I'd argue it's easier to use BTC securely when you're already laundering money than when you want to use it legitimately. Just use throwaway wallets to receive BTC, pay for goods that can be converted to physical cash and proceed laundering that cash as usual.
It's no surprise all the cryptolocker viruses asked for bitcoin payments or cash equivalent cards.
Wouldn't it be possible to temporarily switch to an intermediary altcoin (eg. ethereum, btc) ? I'm not invested nor an expert in any crytocurrency, so please correct me if I'm wrong.