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Posted on 01/01/2012 5:51:39 PM PST by MestaMachine
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Drug boss shocker: I was a DEA snitch
Chicago Sun-Times (IL) - Sunday, August 7, 2011
Author: BY FRANK MAIN ; Staff Reporter/fmain@suntimes.com
EXCERPTS
Most of the Sinaloa Cartel’s communications with the DEA were through a cartel lawyer, Humberto Loya-Castro, according to Zambada-Niebla. He says Loya-Castro fed information to agents about rival cartels starting before 2004. Criminal charges against Loya-Castro in San Diego were dropped in 2008 because of his cooperation, Zambada-Niebla says.
In March 2009, Loya-Castro arranged for Zambada-Niebla to meet DEA agents at a Sheraton Hotel in Mexico City, according to the court filing.
Zambada-Niebla says he gave the U.S. drug agents information about rival cartels and, in return, was assured that a pending indictment against him in Washington, D.C., would be dismissed and that he would be immune from further prosecution.
(snip)
The indictment against Zambada-Niebla charges him and about three dozen other defendants with conspiring to import tons of cocaine and “multi-kilo” quantities of heroin to Chicago and elsewhere between 2005 and 2008. He is being held under high security in a federal lockup in downtown Chicago.
Zambada-Niebla claims that his cartel’s criminal activities were sanctioned by the regional assistant for the DEA in South America — as well as by the general director of the DEA for Mexico and DEA agents in several Mexican cities including Monterrey, Hermosillo and Mexico City. He says in the court filing that agents from the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were involved, too.
He also says that DEA officials tipped Loya-Castro about U.S. and Mexican investigations, allowing top Sinaloa Cartel leaders such as Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman-Loera and Zambada-Niebla ’s own father, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, to avoid capture.
Those men, also charged in the Chicago case, remain fugitives. Guzman-Loera is considered one of the world’s top drug kingpins.
“The United States government and its various agencies have a long history of providing benefits, permission and immunity to criminals and their organizations to commit crimes, including murder, in return for receiving information against other criminals,” Zambada-Niebla ’s court filing says. “Perhaps no better example is the celebrated case of Whitey Bulger, the Boston crime boss and murderer, who, along with other members of criminal organizations, were given carte blanche by the FBI to commit murders in order to receive information about the Italian mafia and other criminal organizations in the New England area.”
Bulger, 81, was arrested June 22 in California after 16 years on the lam. His FBI handler, former Boston FBI agent John Connolly Jr., was convicted of racketeering and obstruction of justice in 2002 for warning Bulger in 1994 that he was going to be indicted. Bulger is accused of killing 19 people.
As with Bulger, the U.S. government turned a blind eye to the crimes the Sinaloa Cartel committed, Zambada-Niebla says in his court filing.
Zambada-Niebla is seeking documents to show whether Sinaloa Cartel leaders received weapons as part of their alleged cooperation with U.S. agents.
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/August/09-ag-824.html
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Ten Alleged Mexican Drug Cartel Leaders Among 43 Defendants Indicted in Brooklyn and Chicago as Part of Coordinated Strike Against Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations
http://www.justice.gov/opa/documents/chapo-mayo-indictment.pdf
(details at links)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2796575/posts
Obama and the Sinaloa Cartel
To the Point News (with permission) ^ | 21 October 2011 | Dagny D’ Anconia
http://www.npr.org/2010/05/19/126906809/mexico-seems-to-favor-sinaloa-cartel-in-drug-war
Mexico Seems To Favor Sinaloa Cartel In Drug War
U.S. federal agents allegedly cut a deal with the Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed it to traffic tons of narcotics across the border, in exchange for information about rival cartels, according to documents filed in federal court…
The allegations are made by Vicente Zambada-Niebla, a top ranking cartel boss extradited to the U.S. last year on drug charges. He is a close associate of Mexico’s most wanted man, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and the son of Ismael “Mayo” Zambada-Garcia…
The deal allegedly began with Humberto Loya-Castro, a Sinaloa cartel lawyer who became an informant for the D.E.A. after a drug case against him was dismissed in 2008.
According to the motion, the deal was part of a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy, where the U.S. helped finance and arm the Sinaloa cartel, through Operation Fast and Furious, in exchange for information that allowed the D.E.A. and FBI to destroy and dismantle rival Mexican cartels. Operation Fast and Furious is the failed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives anti-gun trafficking program which allowed thousand of guns to cross into Mexico.—Fox News
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_18608410?source=most_viewed
Documents: Feds allegedly allowed Sinaloa cartel to move cocaine into U.S. for information
By Diana Washington Valdez / El Paso Times
Posted: 08/04/2011 08:30:37 AM MDT
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/business/18launder.html
Wachovia and U.S. Settle a Money Laundering Case
By REUTERS
Published: March 17, 2010
MIAMI (Reuters) — The Wachovia Bank, a unit of Wells Fargo & Company, has agreed to pay $160 million to settle accusations that it laundered Mexican drug money.
Under the agreement, Wachovia will forfeit $110 million, representing the proceeds of illegal narcotics sales that were laundered through the bank, the United States attorney’s office in the Southern District of Florida said.
The bank will pay an additional $50 million fine to the Treasury.
(snip)
//
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D02E1D61E3BF933A25754C0A96E9C8B63&pagewanted=all
Wachovia hires a Treasury insider to lift it out of its banking woes
By Eric Dash
Published: July 10, 2008
From his perch inside the Treasury Department, Robert Steel has wrestled with the troubles plaguing America’s financial industry. Now he will confront those problems up close at the Wachovia Corporation, one of the nation’s largest banks.
On Wednesday, Wachovia ended its six-week search for a new leader when it named Steel, the under secretary of the Treasury for domestic finance, as its chief executive.
(snip)
Steel, a former vice chairman at Goldman Sachs, played a crucial role in formulating the Bush administration’s response to the running crisis in the mortgage markets. He also championed a controversial plan by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr., a colleague at Goldman, to overhaul the financial industry’s regulatory apparatus.
(snip)
//
http://freerepublic.info/focus/f-news/1965976/posts
Duke bolsters legal team in fighting lawsuit (Duke Hires Jamie Gorelick)
The Herald-Sun (Durham) ^ | Feb 6, 2008 | By Ray Gronberg
Posted on Wednesday, February 06, 2008 1:14:50 PM by Ken H
DURHAM — Duke University has added a former deputy attorney general of the United States to the legal team that will defend it against a federal civil-rights lawsuit filed by three members of the 2005-06 men’s lacrosse team.
Court papers filed this week indicate that Washington, D.C., attorney Jamie Gorelick will assist two Greensboro litigators in representing the school.
They’re also the attorneys of record for the Duke University Police Department, Board of Trustees Chairman Robert Steel, school President Richard Brodhead and numerous other university officials.
(snip)
//
wiki:
Robert King “Bob” Steel (b. August 3, 1951) is an American business leader and an expert on financial institutions and markets. In June 2010, he was named Deputy Mayor for Economic Development by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Previously, he had served as Under Secretary for Domestic Finance of the United States Treasury, as the last president and CEO of Wachovia Corporation, and as vice chair of Goldman Sachs.
(snip)
U.S. Treasury, 2006–08 ...
Wachovia/Wells Fargo, 2008–2010 ...
He is also a member of the Pew Charitable Trusts Task Force on Financial Reform, which advises the United States Congress on critical financial reform issues. In December 2009, he testified before the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. House and Senate regarding financial reform.[40] He is also a member of The FDIC Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion (ComE-IN), which focuses on how to improve underserved and low- and moderate-income consumers’ access to the financial mainstream.[41]
Although Steel was appointed to his Treasury post by a Republican president, he does not regard himself as an ideologue, and has been occasionally criticized for his political independence. For example, although Steel hosted fundraisers at his home for John McCain,[5] columnist Bob Novak complained that Steel is “no Republican,” citing that he had worked with Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin at Goldman Sachs and made campaign donations in 2002 to Democrats from his home state of North Carolina.[42]
Steel:
Kennedy School, 2004–06
From February 2004 to September 2006, Steel was a senior fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.[21]
Auchi:
He was also Vice-Chair of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University from 1996 and 2000
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.isgp.eu/introduction.htm
At the time of the Oil-for-Food scandal it turned out that Nadhmi Auchi’s General Mediterranean Holdings
had a majority share in BNP Paribas (34), the bank that handled all of the Iraqi loans and has subsidiaries all over the Middle-East. Auchi is a member of Le Cercle and is up to his ears involved in illegal arms trafficking, British Intelligence, and the British throne itself. Look for his bio in the membership list of Le Cercle.
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‘Fast and Furious’ Linked to Immunity Deal Between U.S. and Sinaloa Cartel, Trafficking Defendant...
Sunday, January 01, 2012 5:44:39 PM · 149 of 156
hoosiermama to maggief
IIRC Cayman Islands is where CLintons were reported to have their hidden accounts.
Can we tie Auchi/Obama into Barclays?
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‘Fast and Furious’ Linked to Immunity Deal Between U.S. and Sinaloa Cartel, Trafficking Defendant...
Sunday, January 01, 2012 5:33:54 PM · 148 of 156
hoosiermama to maggief; thouworm
Here’s a blurb from CHicago thread:
“Antoin Rezko’s money man and “close friend” is London based Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi who is one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the corporate, banking, political and real estate world. It is Nadhmi Auchi who funded Antoin Rezko.”
Auchi funded BhO’s house in Chicago...etc etc etc
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‘Fast and Furious’ Linked to Immunity Deal Between U.S. and Sinaloa Cartel, Trafficking Defendant...
Sunday, January 01, 2012 5:31:22 PM · 147 of 156
maggief to thouworm
I see a pattern ...
http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2006/06/22/Barclays-buys-Wachovia-unit-for-469M/UPI-69751151006554/
Barclays buys Wachovia unit for $469M
Published: June 22, 2006 at 4:02 PM
NEW YORK, June 22 (UPI) — Barclays Bank PLC is paying $469 million to Wachovia Corp. to buy the U.S. mortgage servicing business of HomEq Servicing Corp.
(snip).
It also said it sees the deal as an opportunity to “grow our existing U.S. mortgage securitization franchise.”
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‘Fast and Furious’ Linked to Immunity Deal Between U.S. and Sinaloa Cartel, Trafficking Defendant...
Sunday, January 01, 2012 5:14:59 PM · 145 of 156
maggief to hoosiermama; thouworm
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Goldman_Sachs
Exposing foreign institutions to subprime risk
Goldman Sachs used offshore tax havens, often in the form of secret deals run through the Cayman Islands, to sell its mortgage-backed securities to institutions worldwide, including European and Asian banks. In at least one such offering, as documented in a September 26, 2006 investment circular, Goldman Sachs pitched supposedly high-grade bonds backed by residential, commercial, and student loans, but the ratings of many of the mortgage securities hid their true risks and, in some cases, Goldman’s descriptions exaggerated their quality. The September 2006 offering, one of billions of dollars worth of such deals in 2006 and 2007, was made at a time when Goldman Sachs began to disengage from the subprime market. “One bond analyst who reviewed the 2006 Cayman deal dismissed it in a report to clients as ‘a not so cleverly disguised way for Goldman Sachs & Co. to unload its unwanted exposures to the subprime real estate market onto foreign investors.’”[25]
...
In his 2009 book, Too Big To Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System—and Themselves, Andrew Sorkin reports that same week Paulson was trying to convince Goldman to buy Wachovia.
Jim Wilkinson, Paulson’s chief of staff, realized that such a deal would be a public-relations nightmare at the worst possible time—just as they were trying to pass TARP. “Hank, if you do this, you’ll get killed,” Wilkinson frantically told his boss. “It would be f*cking crazy.” Paulson, he said, would lose credibility; he would be accused of lining the pockets of his friends at Goldman; the “Government Sachs” conspiracy theories would flourish.[117]
Throughout this time, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, formerly a Goldman Sachs chief executive was aided in his administration of the Treasury Department by numerous advisers who also had personal ties to Goldman Sachs.[118]
...
Political appointees and figures
Robert Rubin, Former United States Treasury Secretary
John Corzine, Governor of New Jersey
Henry Paulson, Chief Executive, U.S. Treasury Secretary under George W. Bush
Robert Zoellick - United States Trade Representative (2001-2005), Deputy Secretary of State (2005-2006), World Bank President. 2007-
Reuben Jeffery III, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs (2007-)
Joshua Bolten, Bush’s chief of staff during the bailout
Mark Patterson, Obama’s Treasury chief of staff, former Goldman lobbyist
Ed Liddy, whom Paulson put in charge of bailed out insurance giant AIG, the former Goldman director
Neel Kashkari, Head of TARP
Gene Sperling, Deputy Dept of Treasury
Gary Genzler, CFTC Chair
Robert D. Hormats, Dept of State Under Secretary for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs (2009 -)
Phil Murphy, Democratic Party’s national finance chairman, represents the United States in Berlin [14]
Other notable Goldman alums: [13]
George Herbert Walker IV - member of the Bush family and current managing director at Neuberger Berman
Robert Steel - Chairman and President, Wachovia.
Jim Cramer, MSNBC Commentator
Michael Cohrs, Head of Global Banking at Deutsche Bank
Mark Carney, Current Governor of the Bank of Canada [92][93]
Malcolm Turnbull, Australian politician, currently the federal leader of the Liberal Party of Australia.
John Thain,former Chairman and CEO, Merrill Lynch, and former chairman of the NYSE.
Romano Prodi, Prime Minister of Italy twice (1996-1998 and 2006-2008) and President of the European Commission (1999-2004)[94]
Mario Draghi, governor of the Bank of Italy (2006- )[94]
Massimo Tononi, Italian deputy treasury chief (2006-2008)[94]
Former Goldman Sachs Employees Hired by the Obama Administration
Mark Patterson: former Goldman Sachs lobbyist, currently Treasury chief of staff; [119]
Gary Gensler: former Goldman partner, currently chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. [120]
Gene Sperling: former Goldman consultant earning $887,727 from the bank in 2008, currently Counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. [121]
Diana Farrell: former Goldman employee, currently deputy director of the White House’s National Economic Council. [122]
Former Goldman Sachs Employees Hired by the Bush Administration
Joshua Bolten: former Goldman Sachs executive, Chief of Staff to President Bush.[123]
Henry Paulson: former Goldman Sachs CEO, appointed Treasury Secretary in 2006 on Bolten’s recommendation.[124]
Neel T. Kashkari: former Goldman Sachs investment banker, hired as Interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability in 2006, headed the Office of Financial Stability during the financial crisis and given responsibility for TARP.[125]
Reuben Jeffrey: previously Under Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs, Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, worked for 18 years at Goldman Sachs, hired by Kashkari in 2008 as interim chief investment officer for TARP. [126] [127]
Dan Jester: former Goldman Sachs strategic officer, hired on contract to advise Henry Paulson during the crisis, advised on AIG, GSEs, TARP and other bailouts. [128]
Steve Shafran: former Goldman Sachs trader in Asian private equity, hired by Paulson to handle student loan and money market issues.[129]
Kendrick R. Wilson III: former Goldman Sachs executive, enlisted as unpaid adviser to canvass banks on reaction to Treasury initiatives during crisis.[130]
Edward C. Forst: former Goldman Sachs chief administrator, hired as advisor to Paulson during the crisis, became head of Goldman Sachs asset management division in 2010.[131] [132]
Robert K. Steel: former Goldman Sachs vice chairman, hired by Paulson Undersecretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance in 2006. [133]
Ed Liddy: former Goldman Sachs director, appointed by Paulson as CEO of AIG.[134]
Former Goldman Sachs Employees Hired by the Clinton Administration
Robert E. Rubin: former co-partner of Goldman Sachs, where he worked for twenty six years. Appointed by Clinton in 1993 to be first director of the National Economic and then appointed as Treasury Secretary, a post he held from 1995 to 1999. [135]
Former Government Officials Hired by Goldman Sachs
Richard Gephardt: Goldman Sachs lobbyist, former House Democrat Leader. [136]
Harold Ford Sr.: Goldman Sachs lobbyist, former Representative, (D-Tenn.). [137]
Steve Elmendorf: Goldman Sachs lobbyist, former deputy campaign manager for John Kerry and aide to Richard Gephardt. [138]
Kenneth Duberstein: Goldman Sachs lobbyist, Reagan White House chief of staff. [139]
Eric Ueland: Goldman Sachs lobbyist, former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s (R-Tenn.) chief of staff.[140]
Robert Zoellick: hired by Goldman Sachs as managing director in 2006, former US Trade Representative 2001 – 2005, Deputy of the US State State Department 2005 – 2006, , n became World Bank President in 2007. [141]
Goldman Sachs Connections with the Federal Reserve
William C. Dudley: former Goldman Sachs partner and managing director, hired by then President of the New York Fed Timothy Geithner to work at the New York Fed in 2007, became New York Fed’s President in 2009. [142]
Stephen Friedman: former Goldman Sachs chairman, appointed to the New York Fed in the category reserved for representatives of the public, chaired New York Fed, chaired President Bush’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Resigned from New York Fed in 2009 due to controversial purchase of Goldman Sachs shares. [143]
Gerald Corrigan: currently Goldman Sachs managing director, former CEO and President of the New York Fed from 1985 to 1993. [144] [145]
Other notable Goldman connections
South African officials
Prior to South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994, Goldman Sachs trained ANC economists. Of those Goldman Sachs trained, Tito Mboweni became South Africa’s Reserve Bank Governor. On his retirement from the Bank Mboweni was hired by Goldman Sachs as an advisor. Lesetja Kganyagom, another Goldman Sachs trainee, is the director-general of the National Treasury. [146]
http://www.charlierose.com/download/transcript/10674
ANDREW SORKIN: You know, the fascinating part about Hank Paulson was
that he did see this coming. And, you know, the book starts the day after
Bear Stearns is sold to J.P. Morgan for $2 a share. I was on your program
and we talked about it.
And it becomes an inflection point for the rest of the story. And
there’s a very important meeting that happens about two weeks after that
transaction takes place where Hank is having his morning meeting with his
staff at 8:30 in the morning, everybody’s arrayed around the room, and he
says “Lehman Brothers may be insolvent, too.”
And that is really a moment where you realize, OK, you can start to
see how the dominos are going to play out. And that’s really how the book
is structured. You’re just watching the dominos go.
And he spends the next six months to his credit to some degree trying
to save Lehman Brothers in ways that we as the public at least never
appreciated.
CHARLIE ROSE: For example?
ANDREW SORKIN: He is — for example, behind the scenes he is calling
his friend Warren Buffett and saying, “Warren, you should think about
making an investment in Lehman Brothers.”
In fact, there’s a whole sequence over a weekend in March — this is
March of 2008. This isn’t over the summer, this isn’t a month or a week
before they went under. This is in March where they’re trying to get this
deal done.
He ends up directing one of his colleagues, Bob Steele, who later
leaves treasury to go to Wachovia, Bob Steele...
CHARLIE ROSE: He was formally with Goldman Sachs.
ANDREW SORKIN: Formerly of Goldman Sachs as well, and we can talk
about the Goldman Sachs in connection in a second. But Bob Steele was
making calls to Bob Diamond, the CEO of Barclays, to try to buy Lehman
Brothers not in September of 2008, but in April.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/23788612/Break-the-Glass-Plan-for-the-US-Treasury-Dept-by-Neel-Kashkari
The Confidential “Break the Glass” Plan was written by the Treasury Department on April 15, 2008, five months before the near economic ..
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1373433/posts
“One investor in all three regions, billionaire Nadhmi Auchi, is widely regarded as a corrupt supporter of Saddam Hussein’s regime who got his money from doing deals, especially illegal arms transfers for Saddam,” states the report.
Auchi is a central figure in the U.N. oil-for-food program where both U.S. Congress and a special U.N. investigation are looking into massive corruption and a missing $10 billion.
Auchi is no ordinary man but a member of Saddam Hussein’s inner circle. Auchi was tried alongside Saddam Hussein for his involvement in a conspiracy to assassinate an Iraqi prime minister in the 1950s. Auchi used money from military contracts in Iraq to establish close political, business and banking contacts in Britain and Luxembourg.
“His first business coup was to broker a deal to sell Italian frigates to the Iraqi defense ministry, for which he received millions of dollars in commission. The deal to buy the ships and other military equipment from the Italian naval shipyards, Catiri Navali Riunit, sparked an Italian parliamentary investigation into alleged bribes. Investigators discovered that a Panamanian company owned by Auchi, the Dowal Corporation, was used to funnel alleged illegal payments,” noted the May 2004 Defense Department report.
Auchi’s relationship with the British government is already under fire, with the billionaire having collected several prominent politicians as directors of his vast European empire of holdings.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RELATED???
Steel:
Kennedy School, 2004–06
From February 2004 to September 2006, Steel was a senior fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.[21]
Auchi:
He was also Vice-Chair of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University from 1996 and 2000
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.isgp.eu/introduction.htm
At the time of the Oil-for-Food scandal it turned out that Nadhmi Auchi’s General Mediterranean Holdings
had a majority share in BNP Paribas (34), the bank that handled all of the Iraqi loans and has subsidiaries all over the Middle-East. Auchi is a member of Le Cercle and is up to his ears involved in illegal arms trafficking, British Intelligence, and the British throne itself. Look for his bio in the membership list of Le Cercle.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2006/06/22/Barclays-buys-Wachovia-unit-for-469M/UPI-69751151006554/
Barclays buys Wachovia unit for $469M
Published: June 22, 2006 at 4:02 PM
NEW YORK, June 22 (UPI) — Barclays Bank PLC is paying $469 million to Wachovia Corp. to buy the U.S. mortgage servicing business of HomEq Servicing Corp.
(snip).
It also said it sees the deal as an opportunity to “grow our existing U.S. mortgage securitization franchise.”
There is a silver lining. Thanks for the new list.
Thank you. Tremendous information/links. Enemies foreign, enemies domestic. TM BUMP!
Drug routes: Note India and South Africa
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/drugs/oct/map.htm
Methamphetamine:Prohibition Shifts Smuggling Routes
(through Mexico/Argentina....via India/China)
http://www.csdp.org/news/news/meth10_15_08.htm
Both India and South Africa have in the past few years past new laws to deal with those who are laundering money....NO need for a law if it wasn’t a problem.
Good morning MM. Could you add me to your ping list please?
DOn’t now how much we can post so just have links.
Nigerian GOvernment officials charged in Money laundering in London
What is our government ties currently with Nigeria?
More details on the Mexican drug moneylaundering from London viewpoint
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico-drug-gangs
Cartels use legitimate trade to launder money, US and Mexico say
(12-22-11)
...”MEXICO CITY - It’s fast becoming the money-laundering method of choice for Mexican drug traffickers, U.S. and Mexican officials say, and it involves truckloads not of cash, but of fruit and fabric....”
Good morning everyone! In the absense of REAL news reporting by the corrupt and hostile to conservatives media, it's sure good to see there are patriotic Americans who give a damn about what is happening to America right in front of our own eyes and with our own tax dollars with lobbyists, cash bundlers, drug cartels, investments in bogus companies, federal loan programs throwing America's finances on people who have zero chance of repaying debt, and foreign governments who hate us but are gifted with the spoils of what is collected from the hard-working American. That no one has gone to prison for any of it is astounding.
Thank you all and welcome.
LucyT, do you have a better map of the international drug trafficing, oh Keeper of the maps?
CIA Map of International Drug Routes
From LucyT
Thank you, LucyT.
In before noon, so good morning! My eyes are gonna need eyes pretty soon.
(no links)
Mexico ‘s money laundering fight praised - Some analysts scoff at U.S. official’s view
The Dallas Morning News - Wednesday, August 6, 1997
Author: Tracey Eaton, Mexico City Bureau of The Dallas Morning News
MEXICO CITY - American drug agents say corruption and lax enforcement have turned Mexico into one of the hemisphere’s premier money - laundering spots. But a U.S. Treasury official whose agency oversees investigations into the stashing of illicit cash had little but praise for his Mexican counterparts on Tuesday.
“The progress Mexico has made in criminalizing money laundering . . . has been impressive,” said deputy treasury secretary Lawrence Summers. He was meeting with American and British reporters during a visit to Mexico City.
Some drug-trade analysts scoff at that view, saying the Clinton administration is underestimating the threat of Mexico ‘s drug cartels.
“Obviously the most important fact here is that as far as anyone can tell, drugs continue to go through Mexico , profits are laundered in Mexico and there’s no evidence of any decrease,” said John Walters, deputy drug czar under former President George Bush.
“But the current posture by the federal government is to cravenly play down drug trafficking and how deep the corruption is in Mexico ‘s institutions. “ Mr. Summers denied playing down the problem of money laundering and related corruption.
“Fighting money laundering is profoundly important,” he said.
“We have seen a number of prosecutions. “ In a case involving Raul Salinas, brother of former President Carlos Salinas, money - laundering charges were recently dropped for a lack of evidence.
Mr. Summers declined to talk about that case. Nor would he characterize the extent of money laundering in Mexico . He also refused to release the Treasury Department’s own estimates on the amount of money laundered in Mexico , saying the numbers were not “sufficiently definitive for me to quote. “ Latin Trade , a business magazine based in Miami, estimates in its September edition that as much as $15 billion in drug proceeds is laundered in Mexico every year. That figure is equal to 5 percent of Mexico ‘s gross domestic product.
(snip)
130 held in drug money probe - Mexican cartel’s cash linked to Chicago
Chicago Sun-Times - Tuesday, May 19, 1998
Author: CAM SIMPSON AND LYNN SWEET
Chicago was the center of money - laundering operations for the notorious Juarez drug cartel of Mexico , according to federal authorities, who announced Monday the arrest of about 10 people here and more than 130 nationwide.
The three-year investigation capped the “largest, most comprehensive drug money - laundering case in the history of U.S. law enforcement,” Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said.
Chicago served as a “command and control center,” where money was stored in houses, garages and even specially constructed underground vaults to be prepared for shipping to Mexico , a senior agent with the U.S. Customs Service said. As much as $200 million in Juarez drug money passed through Chicago, although a lesser amount is specified in the indictment.
Chicago turned out to be a “collection point for drug sales in the Midwest,” the agent said. Proceeds were delivered and stored until shipment to Mexico .
Three separate but related indictments were unsealed Monday in federal court in Los Angeles. They target Mexican bankers, who allegedly laundered money for the Cali drug cartel of Colombia, and reputed money launderers for the Juarez cartel.
At the center of the Chicago Juarez money laundering operation was Jose Alvarez-Tostado, according to law enforcement authorities in Los Angeles. They accused Alvarez-Tostado of being the “boss” of a “Chicago-based operation that controlled the collection and laundering of drug proceeds on behalf of the Juarez” drug cartel.
Specifically, the indictment outlines 14 deliveries of drug proceeds collected in the Chicago area between May, 1997, and Feb. 26, 1998. It alleges those deliveries totaled more than $27 million. None of that money , however, was seized.
A Treasury Department source said the indictment covered “only the tip of the iceberg” of a larger operation that moved $200 million in alleged Juarez drug profits through Chicago.
(snip)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/19/world/la-fg-mexico-money-laundering-trade-20111219
CARTELS USE LEGITIMATE TRADE TO LAUNDER MONEY , U.S., MEXICO SAY
Aberdeen American News (SD) - Monday, December 19, 2011
Author: Tracy Wilkinson and Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Mexico City
It’s fast becoming the money - laundering method of choice for Mexican drug traffickers, U.S. and Mexican officials say, and it involves truckloads not of cash, but of fruit and fabric.
Faced with new restrictions on the use of U.S. cash in Mexico , drug cartels are using an ingenious scheme to move their ill-gotten dollars south under the guise of legitimate cross-border commerce.
U.S. and Mexican authorities say trade-based money - laundering may be the most clever - and hardest to detect - way in which traffickers are washing and distributing their billion-dollar profits.
FULL COVERAGE: Mexico ‘s drug war
“It’s such a great scheme,” said an undercover agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agency. “You could hide dirty money in so much legitimate business, and they do. You can audit their books all day long and all you see is goods being imported and exported.”
Here’s one way it works: Instead of smuggling the money the old-fashioned way, by simply carrying it south in bags and trucks, teams of money launderers working for cartels use dollars to purchase a commodity, and then export the commodity to Mexico or Colombia. Paperwork is generated that gives a patina of propriety. Drug money is given the appearance of legitimate proceeds from a trade transaction.
By turning their mountain of proceeds into tomatoes, say, or bolts of Chinese fabric shipped and resold in Mexico , cartels accomplish two goals at once: They transfer earnings back home to pay bills and buy new drug supplies while converting dollars to pesos in a transaction relatively easy to explain to authorities.
Long used by Colombian cartels, the scheme is becoming more popular with Mexican traffickers after new efforts here to combat laundering by restricting the use of dollars. Those restrictions, plus proposed limits on cash purchases of big-ticket items such as houses and boats, make it less attractive for traffickers to hold trunks full of U.S. cash.
After many years of using dollars to buy luxury items and pay their suppliers and dealers, cartel capos have suddenly found themselves in need of pesos. Trade-based money - laundering solves that problem.
“It’s a better way to conceal proceeds,” said Raymond Villanueva, head of an ICE unit that investigates international money - laundering . “It’s not going to raise so many flags.”
The pioneer in the trade-based technique in Mexico may have been Blanca Cazares, the alleged queen of money - laundering for the multibillion-dollar Sinaloa cartel. Los Angeles County prosecutors indicted her in 2008 on charges of heading a vast operation dedicated to “processing illicit proceeds” for the cartel; a onetime resident of Bell, she remains at large, presumably in Mexico .
(snip)
trafficking
I might could learn to speel with some praktis.
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