U.S. agents help Mexican drug cartels launder millions in dirty profits, reports New York Times

Federal agents are fully "embedded" with Mexican drug dealers, working side by side with them and regularly hauling enormous sums of cash back to the U.S.

The New York Times said in its yesterday's edition (December 3) that "Undercover American narcotics agents have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds as part of Washington’s expanding role in Mexico’s fight against drug cartels." Most of the agents involved in the program work for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). According to the Times, the agents "have handled shipments of hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal cash across borders to identify how criminal organizations move their money, where they keep their assets and, most important, who their leaders are." The paper said that dirty money is "deposited in accounts designated by traffickers, or in shell accounts set up by agents" themselves.

The Times reported that "One D.E.A. official said it was not unusual for American agents to pick up two or three loads of Mexican drug money each week. When asked how much money had been laundered as a part of the operations, the official would only say, 'A lot. If you’re going to get into the business of laundering money,' the official added, 'then you have to be able to launder money.'"

According to the Times article, U.S. agents masquerading as smugglers and money launderers routinely pick up huge amounts of cash in Mexico and fly it back to the United States, often on government airplanes. The money is deposited in cartel controlled bank accounts from where it is then sent to companies and businesses which provide them with goods and services, or is wired directly to cartel bank accounts in other locations. The paper quoted a Justice Dept. source who said that on some occasions more than $10 million in drug profits were laundered in a single transaction, "to attract the interest of high-value targets."

Disclosure of the money laundering strategy is sure to provoke comparisons to recently disclosed secret arms sales programs under which federal agents allowed high powered military assault weapons to be sold to the cartels, or to straw purchasers, inside the United States. Wide Receiver was used by ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) agents during the second administration of George W. Bush, and DEA set up a similar program called Fast and Furious in 2009. Both operations came to light in early 2011, infuriating Mexican officials as well as many in Congress. Hearings are underway in the Senate and House of Representatives, and criminal indictments of those behind the arms sales are possible. President Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder, have said that they knew nothing of the programs until this year, a claim disputed by some Republicans. The stated purpose of the operations was to follow drug cartel movements by tracking devices imbedded in the firearms. Holder told a Senate committee on Nov. 8 that the secret arms sales "should never have happened," and that many of the weapons would likely be used by criminals for years. ATF agents referred to them as "guns gone walking."

The Times noted that "As it launders drug money, the agency often allows cartels to continue their operations over months or even years before making seizures or arrests." Officials familiar with the DEA operation told the paper that the strategy is necessary because Mexican drug cartels are sophisticated, professional organizations operating at an international level, and there is no easy way to track their operations. "These people aren’t running a drugstore in downtown L.A.," one official told the Times.

When does the cop become the criminal?
$39 billion USD washed every year by drug traffickers
New York Times article