Fruit, fabric and toys are purchased and then exported south, generating paperwork that gives drug money the appearance of lawful proceeds from a transaction, authorities say.
By Tracy Wilkinson and Ken Ellingwood
Reporting from Mexico City--
It's fast becoming the money-laundering method of choice for Mexican drug traffickers, U.S. and Mexican officials say, and it involves truckloads not of cash, but of fruit and fabric.
Faced with new restrictions on the use of U.S. cash in Mexico, drug cartels are using an ingenuous scheme to move their ill-gotten dollars south under the guise of legitimate cross-border commerce.
U.S. and Mexican authorities say trade-based money-laundering may be the most clever -- and hardest to detect -- way in which traffickers are washing and distributing their billion-dollar profits.
"It's such a great scheme," said an undercover agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agency. "You could hide dirty money in so much legitimate business, and they do. You can audit their books all day long and all you see is goods being imported and exported."
Continue Reading: latimes.com
By Tracy Wilkinson and Ken Ellingwood
Reporting from Mexico City--
It's fast becoming the money-laundering method of choice for Mexican drug traffickers, U.S. and Mexican officials say, and it involves truckloads not of cash, but of fruit and fabric.
Faced with new restrictions on the use of U.S. cash in Mexico, drug cartels are using an ingenuous scheme to move their ill-gotten dollars south under the guise of legitimate cross-border commerce.
U.S. and Mexican authorities say trade-based money-laundering may be the most clever -- and hardest to detect -- way in which traffickers are washing and distributing their billion-dollar profits.
"It's such a great scheme," said an undercover agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agency. "You could hide dirty money in so much legitimate business, and they do. You can audit their books all day long and all you see is goods being imported and exported."
Continue Reading: latimes.com
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