How Dirty Money From Fentanyl Sales Is Flowing Through China

Wall Street Journal (via MSN) ^ | February 19, 2025 | Patricia Kowsmann, Dylan Tokar, Brian Spegele

[ProtectOurFreedom]

On an October morning in 2022, an alleged drug trafficker drove a white pickup truck into the parking lot of a Global Fresh Market in San Gabriel, Calif., and stopped alongside a blue Maserati.

After a quick discussion with a woman in the Maserati, the man placed a large black bag in the sportscar’s back seat. Members of a U.S. government task force, who were watching, say it contained some $300,000 in cash.

The drop was part of what U.S. officials say is a new front in America’s war on drugs: an emerging partnership that has made China a crucial pit stop for dirty money flowing from the U.S.’s fentanyl crisis, according to law-enforcement officials and court documents.

Chinese money brokers, part of an underground banking system that has long served the country’s immigrant diaspora, have become go-to partners for fentanyl traffickers and other criminal groups needing to launder illicit drug profits, officials say.

Long operating in the shadows, the Chinese brokers use intermediaries, such as the woman in the Maserati, to collect drug profits from fentanyl dealers. Then, through a series of transactions, they sell those dollars to Chinese customers who want cash in the U.S. for purposes such as buying real estate or other investments, but can’t legally send money directly from China because of capital controls there.

The drug dealers end up with clean money in the process, law-enforcement officials say.

In the case involving the Maserati, dubbed “Operation Fortune Runner,” members of the Drug Enforcement Administration task force spent years investigating one such network, including thousands of hours of street-level surveillance. Traffic stops of suspects turned up cash stowed in a Fruity Pebbles cereal box and a gift bag with “Happy Birthday” printed on the side.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

"The investigation eventually led to indictments of 24 individuals last year, involving more than $50 million in drug proceeds prosecutors say Chinese brokers were laundering for associates of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel."

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The total US drug trade is estimated at up to $200 billion per year. If it takes multiple years and thousands of hours of street-level work to roll up one $50 million operation, it would take 4,000 such operations to put an end to the scourge.

Here in Silicon Valley, there are lots of all-cash transactions for houses often with Chinese buyers. I wonder how much of these all-cash transactions are via this Chinese money laundering to get money out of China.

Joe Biden should build himself a second career here since he is such an expert at money laundering through innumerable shell companies. He could teach them a thing or two about how to do money laundering.

Maybe when Musk and DOGE are done cleaning up the entire federal government, Musk and his whiz kids could turn their attention to understanding these Chinese and Mexican cartel money flows and how to put them out of business.

The silly graphic below is from the WSJ and does nothing to help understand what is going on with the drug trade and money laundering.

[Purpleperson]

Stop making the penny and one hundred dollar bills.
Money laundering would be twice as difficult with 50s and below

[Ikeon]

We are all born with a sinful nature. Therefor, There will never be a stop to drug trafficing.

They have the death penalty in the Philippines for drug trafficing, yet the Philippines still has drugs. Why? Because there is no such thing as " the good in everyone".

let me explain...

Dedication to ones self, is the root of Satan's tree in a person's life. Until you dedicated your life to something bigger than ones self, you will always be open to self indulgence that leads to sin.

Sin will

Take you further than you planned to go,

Cost you more than you want to pay,

and.. Keep you longer than you want to stay

[JimRed]

The key to this diagram is DRUG USER. Drug abuse is a CHOICE. Anybody over twelve years of age knows that drugs can kill you. Bad choices can have bad outcomes. The fentanyl scourge is helping to weed out undesirables from the population.

That said, I still want to see ALL drug dealers, from street level to kingpin, executed.

[MMusson]

It takes 4 or 5 hours to grow, harvest, refine and transport one dosage of cocaine. It takes about 20 seconds for fentanyl.

[JimRed]

Stop making the penny and one hundred dollar bills. Money laundering would be twice as difficult with 50s and below

It would be even harder with no cash at all! Is that what you want? You know that would be the next step if the left regains power!

[marktwain]

The most abused drug in the USA is alcohol.

[BipolarBob]

This really makes me angry. Look at how many hands that goes through. All of that money laundering. I should have the right to buy my fentanyl straight from China and cut out all of these middle men. Just like Elon Musk and DOGE. Except mine would be called DODE, Dept. Of Drug Efficiency.

[LouAvul]

Yep. Ban all of it. Max penalties for dui and dealing dope. Outlaw weed except w/legitimate medical need. And, “anxiety” is not legitimate. Nor is “toothache.”

[Karliner]

Who can find Newsom’s dirty dealings leaving the border wide open? How are politician’s making millions kissing the feet of the CCP?