Drawing from the US indictment of the two men, Zeta says that Ayon Diaz and Contreras Arriaga used multiple “casas de cambio,” currency exchange houses, in Tijuana to launder money tied to the Sinaloa Cartel’s drug trafficking. In less than two years, Ayon Diaz and Contreras Arriaga laundered over 45 million dollars, the report says.
Much of this was accomplished by transferring illicit financial earnings between Mexico and United States banks. Intelligence officials told Zeta that Ayon Diaz and Contreras Arriaga also worked directly for the Lira Sotelo family, known drug traffickers since 2007.