Mexican drug traffickers using US businesses as fronts to disguise criminal profits

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Mexican drug traffickers using US businesses as fronts to disguise criminal profits
By The Associated Press
on October 11, 2014 at 11:10 PM, updated October 11, 2014 at 11:18 PM

CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- For a company that booked $12 million in annual sales importing snacks like chile- and lime-flavored chips from Mexico, Baja Distributors Inc.'s offices were oddly quiet. There were no signs outside. Its small warehouse was almost empty. Phones went unanswered.

Investigators say there was a reason for the anonymity: The business was laundering money from Mexican drug traffickers. Baja Distributors, whose executives denied laundering drug money, brought more than $17 million from Mexico in 18 months.

U.S. front companies for cartels aren't new, but U.S. officials say they took a more prominent role after Mexico capped dollar deposits in cash at $7,000 a month for businesses in 2010, later raised to $14,000. As a result, they say, cartels sought companies to deposit money in American banks and wire it back in pesos under the guise of international trade.

San Diego, the largest American city on Mexico's border, became a magnet for cash coming to the country from Mexico, according to an Associated Press analysis of customs declarations since 2009.

Read more: http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2014/10/mexican_drug_traffickers_using.html

[Liberty Belle]

1. True, I've heard a restaurant here was shut down for this.

I suspect a couple of other businesses nearby in Casa de Oro are fronts for the cartels -- a bakery still supposedly in business that hasn't been opened for weeks, and a Mexican restaurant that is rarely open while two similar restaurants down the street are always packed.

[quadrature]

2. c'mon..visit the barrio

dozens of do-nothing cash businesses.
there is something funny going on

[rocktivity]

9. If you want side-splitting hilarity, consider the sell-nothing hiphop acts.

Where, oh where could THEIR money be coming from? Night clubs, strip joints and car washes make for excellent money laundering throughs, too.


rocktivity

[PeoViejo]

3. Old Mafia Scam

One of the best and cheapest places to get Breakfast in Manhattan was run by the Mob as a Cash Laundering business. I found out about it from an FBI Agent who took his clients there on a regular basis. What better way to get a good meal and run surveillance.

[logosoco]

4. This is news?

How much of the community tax money went to figure this out?

Sorry for my snarky attitude, but we really need to end the war on drugs. It is not helping anyone and is creating way more problems than it solves.

[Brother Buzz]

5. Get a business license, an address, a telephone, and open your own Money Laundering "R" Us franchise

Herding cats is easier than putting a stop to this.

[KansDem]

6. How dare these Mexican drug traffickers muscle in on the Big Banks!

Gangster Bankers: Too Big to Jail

How HSBC hooked up with drug traffickers and terrorists. And got away with it

By Matt Taibbi | February 14, 2013

The deal was announced quietly, just before the holidays, almost like the government was hoping people were too busy hanging stockings by the fireplace to notice. Flooring politicians, lawyers and investigators all over the world, the U.S. Justice Department granted a total walk to executives of the British-based bank HSBC for the largest drug-and-terrorism money-laundering case ever. Yes, they issued a fine – $1.9 billion, or about five weeks' profit – but they didn't extract so much as one dollar or one day in jail from any individual, despite a decade of stupefying abuses.

People may have outrage fatigue about Wall Street, and more stories about billionaire greedheads getting away with more stealing often cease to amaze. But the HSBC case went miles beyond the usual paper-pushing, keypad-punching­ sort-of crime, committed by geeks in ties, normally associated­ with Wall Street. In this case, the bank literally got away with murder – well, aiding and abetting it, anyway.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/gangster-bankers-too-big-to-jail-20130214#ixzz3FxMZXdvn

[jtuck004]

7. Wonder if they need any new locations? n/t

[rocktivity]

8. Candidate for this year's "You Call This NEWS?" Award

Last edited Sun Oct 12, 2014, 08:30 PM - Edit history (1)

Using American businesses to disguise criminal profits -- what an original idea!!!




rocktivity

[BobTheSubgenius]

10. I once read of a travel agency...

...that was being used to facilitate heroin smuggling into the US. It had an unlisted phone number.

[pdxflyboy]

11. Mattress Stores

What about mattress stores? There are dozens of them here in Portland, OR. There is almost never any customers in any of them. It makes you wonder how they stay in business.

[Orsino]

12. How will law enforcement ever untangle those criminal millions...

...from the drug money?

BOOM!