Two indictments were unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, charging 19 members of an international money laundering scheme with conspiring to launder tens of millions of dollars in narcotics proceeds.1 According to the indictments and a detention letter filed today by the government, members of the conspiracy laundered tens of millions of dollars in narcotics proceeds from the United States to Colombia between 2006 and 2013. As part of the government’s investigation, law enforcement officers have thus far seized more than $6.5 million in United States currency as well as 52.5 kilograms of heroin, 32 kilograms of cocaine, 63 pounds of marijuana, eight vehicles and three firearms….
According to the indictment and other court filings submitted by the government, the four-year investigation revealed that, between January 2006 and March 2013, individuals operating out of retail shopping malls in Cali, Colombia (“money brokers”) assisted drug trafficking organizations in Colombia by laundering the proceeds of sales of narcotics in the United States. The twelve individuals arrested in Colombia today were money brokers who operated out of the El Diamante, Gran Centro Commercial, San Andresito and Atlantis retail shopping malls in Cali. Photographs of the interior areas of the El Diamante and Gran Centro Commercial shopping malls, where some of these money brokers operated, are attached to this press release.
These twelve money brokers oversaw a large network of confederates to assist in transferring millions of dollars in narcotics proceeds from narcotics distributors in the United States to narcotics suppliers in Colombia. The money brokers employed many individuals known as “money movers,” i.e., people responsible for collecting narcotics proceeds and disposing of those proceeds as directed by either the drug trafficking organization or the money brokers. The money movers served as go-betweens, taking the proceeds from narcotics distributors in the United States and eventually passing the money to other members of the organization, who repatriated the proceeds to Colombia.
The four individuals arrested today in the United States (and the three others already in custody on other charges) were money movers. They received phone numbers and code words from the money brokers to use to contact and identify the recipients to whom they were to deliver the narcotics proceeds. The money movers concealed and transported amounts ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars in narcotics proceeds at a time, hidden within compartments in vehicles, gasoline containers, duffel bags and shoeboxes. These cash deliveries took place in locations such as parking lots of retail stores and fast food restaurants in Queens, New York, and elsewhere. At these meeting places, the money movers delivered the United States currency, which often was bundled and heat sealed, to other members of the organization.
DOJ press release link: click here