22 charged in Miami drug money laundering operation

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

22 charged in Miami drug money laundering operation

Updated 11:20 am, Thursday, April 7, 2016

MIAMI (AP) — Authorities say 22 people are being charged in an international money laundering case that funneled cash to drug trafficking cartels through Miami-based businesses.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said Thursday the case is a joint investigation with federal Homeland Security Department officials. Authorities say the undercover operation involved about $1 million a month in drug money from throughout North America.

The charges are mostly against the illicit money couriers working for Colombian and Mexican cartels trying to get U.S. drug-profit dollars converted into pesos they can use. No business owners were charged but Rundle says they should be on notice when handling suspicious transactions.

The Miami-area businesses are mostly involved in the South American electronics export trade.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/22-charged-in-Miami-drug-money-laundering-7234180.php

[silvershadow]

1. Were any of them banks? Never mind, I know they weren't. And never will be. Ever. nt

[phazed0]

2. It would never be the DEA, CIA or Police either. nt

[mia]

3. The Miami Herald has more complete coverage.

A sophisticated ring of money launderers — with an array of pop cultural nicknames like “Tony Montana,” “Pitbull” and “Neymar” — has been busted on charges of sending untold millions in illegal cocaine profits to Colombia using nearly a dozen businesses in Miami-Dade.

Miami-Dade authorities announced arrest warrants for 22 people believed to have worked in a scheme that included the suspected chief money launderer for the Mexican drug cartel headed by notorious kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

The wide-reaching probe into the so-called “black market peso exchange” — which involved monitoring deals in 17 countries — is the first such case to be filed in Miami-Dade state court, and offers the most recent window into the drug-fueled underground lending system that law enforcement authorities believe props up hundreds of South Florida businesses.

“They use Miami’s strong international economy as the actual funnel of all of their international money-laundering operations,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle told reporters at a press conference on Thursday. ‘We are surely the global hub for money laundering.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article70374777.html#storylink=cpy

[Judi Lynn]

4. Thank you! Wanted to add Miami is also the Medicaid fraud capital of the US, etc. n/t