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Atlanta Money Launderers Charged in $40M Cartel Scheme
ATLANTA – Eleven individuals have been charged in connection with laundering millions of dollars in drug money to Mexico through metro-Atlanta area money remitters, as part of a three-year-long federal investigation.
Using money remitters to launder illegal drug proceeds is just one more way drug cartels fuel their criminal enterprises, said U.S. Attorney John Horn. The business model of many Mexican cartels requires a means to get their cash profits across the border and into the hands of the supervisors and sellers. This investigation shows that they may have found an effective means through unscrupulous money remitters. We hope these cases will help to close this pipeline.
The investigation, led by federal law enforcement agents, discovered that managers and employees of a number of metro-Atlanta money remitters were knowingly helping the money launderers send drug proceeds to Mexico. During the course of the investigation, cooperating sources and an undercover law enforcement officer brought money that was represented as coming from drug sales to different remitters. The cooperating sources or undercover law enforcement officer made clear that the money came from the sale of illegal narcotics.
In exchange for a kickback, managers and employees of nine different businesses allegedly agreed to launder purported drug funds to Mexico by breaking the transactions into smaller amounts and by listing fake sender names, addresses, and telephone numbers.
The investigation revealed that these nine money remitters allegedly transmitted more than $40 million over a roughly four-year timeframe. Federal agents determined that these remitters transmitted thousands of wires to individuals in Mexico that listed fake addresses and telephone numbers, which is how the bulk of the undercover proceeds were laundered.
The indictments allege that the defendants tried to conceal the source of the funds by circumventing the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires financial institutions – including money remitters – to monitor their clients for suspicious conduct and to obtain valid identification for high dollar remittances. The defendants allegedly kept their transfers under certain dollar amounts to avoid raising suspicion. Several of the defendants allegedly served as the Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (“BSA/AML”) Compliance Officers for their respective stores and were responsible for detecting and reporting these types of illicit activity.
Key Facts
- State: Georgia
- Category: Drug Trafficking|Fraud & Financial Crimes|Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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