Ecstatic catching leader of fraud in fake US bills (8)
I believe the answer is:
blissful
'ecstatic' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'leader of fraud in fake us bills' is the wordplay.
'leader of' says to take the initial letters.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'fake' is an anagram indicator (I've seen this in other clues).
The first letter of 'fraud' is 'f'.
'us'+'bills'='usbills'
'usbills' anagrammed gives 'blissul'.
'f' inserted inside 'blissul' is 'BLISSFUL'.
'catching' is the link.
(Other definitions for blissful that I've seen before include "Delighted" , "Ecstatic, rapturously happy" , "Extremely happy" , "Full of joy" , "Happy, often delusively" .)