Pubdate: Wed, 18 Oct 2006
Source: Newsday (NY)
Copyright: 2006 Newsday Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/308
Author: Larry Neumeister, Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/colombia

26 US-COLOMBIA DRUG-MONEY ARRESTS ANNOUNCED IN NYC

NEW YORK -- Twenty-six people were arrested in Colombia and the 
United States after federal authorities investigated a massive 
Colombian money-laundering organization that processed millions of 
dollars in drug proceeds through a black market peso exchange.

Along with the arrests, authorities announced the seizure of $10 
million in cash and $6.5 million in narcotics.

In one court document filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, New 
York Police Department Detective Jon Paul Figueroa described the 
scheme, saying it was used to process some of the billions of dollars 
generated each year by Colombian drug dealers.

He said narcotics traffickers used the Colombian Black Market Peso 
Exchange to disguise the source of income because banking laws in the 
United States and Colombia prevent them from depositing drug money 
into U.S. accounts and then transferring the money overseas.

Figueroa said the techniques in which the peso exchange was used to 
launder the money ultimately allows drug proceeds to end up in the 
accounts of individuals and companies who appear to have no direct 
involvement in narcotics-trafficking crimes.

The process, he added, frustrates the efforts of the United States, 
Colombia and other governments around the world to enforce their 
currency exchange and income reporting requirements as well as to 
collect taxes and maintain integrity in financial institutions.

As part of the probe, Colombian law enforcement authorities obtained 
judicial authorization to intercept telephones used by various peso 
brokers in Colombia, Figueroa said.

He said the Colombian officers also identified money launderers in 
the New York City area, including some of the defendants, who were 
collecting and distributing drug proceeds in coordination with their 
criminal associates in Colombia.

He said the probe also relied on multiple confidential informants who 
worked with undercover officers posing as people in New York who were 
able to receive narcotics proceeds and place them into the U.S. 
banking system to be laundered through the peso exchange.
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