As a former intelligence analyst for the Drug Enforcement Administration specializing in Mexican drug-money laundering methods and groups, I am responding to Holman W. Jenkins Jr.'s Jan. 27 Business World column "Washington Looks for Money Launderers Where They Aren't."

Mr. Jenkins claims the U.S. government "was already in possession of, and resolutely ignoring, intelligence linking him [Raul Salinas] to drug money." I would be interested in knowing who possessed this information. Following the capture of Raul Salinas's paramour, Paulina Castanon, by Swiss authorities, after she tried to remove $80 million from accounts owned by Raul Salinas, the Swiss notified U.S. authorities, believing the money was tied to drug trafficking. The DEA was initially handed the investigation, and we scoured our vast intelligence indices and case files for any definitive link between Mr. Salinas and drug trafficking. Establishing such a "drug nexus" was critical to the continued detention by Swiss authorities of Ms. Castanon, and to charging Mr. Salinas with money laundering. Despite a thorough review, and to our dismay, we were unable to establish such a link. Money laundering is an exceedingly difficult charge to substantiate when suspected illicit funds cannot be directly connected to an underlying "specified unlawful activity," as U.S. law requires.

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