Undercover agents tracked the conversion of $30-million in drug profits from dollars to Colombian pesos, prosecutors say. Alleged brokers and couriers are arrested.
By Associated Press
Published August 30, 2003
MIAMI - Seven leaders of the hemisphere's largest known drug money laundering ring have been arrested in a roundup that tracked the handling of $30-million in drug profits and seized nearly $13-million, prosecutors said Friday.
Twenty-eight arrests were made and 69 bank accounts were seized in the United States and Colombia by agents who infiltrated a currency exchange that served 18 U.S. drug networks, authorities said.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said Ivan Henao in the United States and Paul Mejia in Colombia headed a ring that was one of the world's top 53 drug and laundering organizations in 2001. Both were arrested.
A 32-count indictment "strikes at one of the very top targets in the drug trafficking world," U.S. Attorney Marcos Jimenez said.
Colombian drug cartels had contracts with eight brokers to deliver laundered cash, and the money was pooled in the United States for delivery south, investigators said. Informers and undercover agents posing as launderers made 63 deals worth $15.3-million since 1999, transferring supposedly tainted money by wire to drug cartel accounts designated by the brokers. Money movements were tracked through Curacao and the British Virgin Islands.
Once agents gained the trust of brokers, the brokers handed over codes, code names and contact information for couriers, including 27 named in the newly unsealed indictment.
Cash stashed in suitcases, boxes and bags was handed off by couriers to agents meeting on busy streets and parking lots. Amounts ranged from $50,000 to $999,444.
The profits came from drug dealing in Chicago, Connecticut, Florida, Los Angeles, New York, New Jersey and Puerto Rico. Arrests were made in each location.
Related drug investigations produced 777 pounds of cocaine and 46 pounds of heroin.
The brokers charged a 7 percent fee to change drug dollars into clean Colombian pesos, said Brian Wimpling, head of the Internal Revenue Service in Miami. Five of the indicted alleged brokers are in custody in Fort Lauderdale, one in Puerto Rico and one in Colombia. The eighth is a fugitive.
The laundering operation was run by Henao, 50, from his home in the affluent suburb of Weston and by Mejia, 45, from Bogota, authorities said.
