3 nations move against alleged big money launderer in Panama
Source: Associated Press
3 nations move against alleged big money launderer in Panama
Juan Zamorano and Joshua Goodman, Associated Press
Updated 1:50 am, Friday, May 6, 2016
PANAMA CITY (AP) — Authorities have arrested a prominent Panama businessman and dismantled an empire of banking, real estate and retail businesses that the U.S. says were part of a top worldwide money-laundering organization for drug traffickers.
The coordinated operation was announced Thursday as the U.S. Treasury Department froze U.S. assets owned by 68 companies in this Central American nation and in Colombia under a drug kingpin designation.
As part of the effort, Colombian police arrested Nidal Waked the previous day at an airport in Colombia's capital, Bogota.
Waked and his father, Abdul Waked, are accused of being the co-leaders of an organization that laundered drug profits through a web of companies including a luxury mall, a bank and the duty-free zone at Panama City's international airport, which had attracted U.S. law enforcement's scrutiny before. The family also owns Panama's oldest newspaper, the Estrella de Panama.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/US-Colombian-police-arrest-alleged-top-money-7396131.php
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