The number of money laundering cases in Nogales declined last year, and the city’s police chief says it’s due in part to a new smuggling scam that sounds all too literal: buying clothes to launder money.
Drug trafficking organizations are changing their habits after law enforcement agencies cracked down on efforts to bring currency from drug sales in the United States into Mexico, said Nogales Police Department Chief Derek Arnson…
…A load of $500,000 worth of clothes can easily pass through customs at the border and then be sold at stores in Mexico, he said, adding: “They’ll take it down south to Mexico and they’ll sell the stuff for more than the $500,000.”
The tactic is part of the “cat-and-mouse game” between law enforcement agencies and traffickers, Arnson said, adding “whatever that mouse is doing, we’ve got to find it.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is investigating the practice of laundering money through clothes sales, but could not provide any more information due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, agency spokeswoman Amber Cargile said.
When asked about the scam and whether it might be resulting in increased clothes purchases here as well as Los Angeles, one Nogales department store owner said he was unaware of it. Neither traffickers nor law enforcement agencies have approached him about it, he said.
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