• Military
• WMD
• Intelligence

• Security Menu                     

• Systems
• Industry
• Operations
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Space

10 May 2004

U.S. Dismantles Colombian Money-Laundering Ring

Drug money laundered through Colombian black-market system

By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The U.S. government has broken up a massive international money-laundering ring through which $20 million in illicit drug proceeds from Colombia were laundered into the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said in a May 4 statement that 34 people have been indicted in the case, dubbed "Operation White Dollar." The defendants are charged with laundering money through the Colombian Black Market Peso Exchange (BMPE).

In addition, a prominent Colombian industrialist, Jose Douer-Ambar, agreed to have his prosecution deferred, in return for which he will forfeit to the United States $20 million in illegal proceeds, constituting the amount he purchased from the indicted peso brokers.

The BMPE is an informal currency exchange system in which "peso brokers" serve as middlemen between narcotics traffickers, who control massive quantities of drug money in cash in the United States. It also involves companies and individuals in Colombia who want to purchase U.S. dollars outside the Colombian banking system so that they can, among other things, avoid the payment of import duties and transaction fees owed to the Colombian government.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said the arrests highlight the U.S. government's strategy to attack drug cartels where it "hurts most -- on the money side," adding: "Those who choose to help hide the proceeds of illegal drug trafficking are as much a part of the problem as those who bring the drugs into this country, and they will be dealt with accordingly. We will not let these organizations keep their ill-gotten profits and continuously pump them into the drug pipeline."

The DEA said the 34 defendants were involved in a BMPE conspiracy centered in Bogota. The indictment includes charges against five defendants alleged to be "First-Tier Peso Brokers," who make contracts directly with narcotics-trafficking organizations; two defendants alleged to be "Second-Tier Peso Brokers," who concentrate on arranging for the pickup of street-level cash narcotics proceeds and placing those funds into the banking system; and nine defendants alleged to be "Third-Tier Peso Brokers," who make contracts directly with the Colombian dollar purchasers.

The DEA said that, if convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of 20 years' imprisonment on each of the charges of money laundering, which is described as the processing of criminal proceeds to disguise their illegal origin. Moreover, various defendants face an additional maximum sentence of five years' imprisonment on illegal money-remitting and conspiracy charges.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2004&m=May&x=20040510123957AEneerG0.8771631&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html