"Operation
Casablanca":
Feds'
Big
Money
Laundering
Bust
Amounts
to
Chump
Change
5/22/98
This Monday, the US Treasury Department announced the results of "Operation Casablanca," a three year investigation into drug trafficking and money laundering that has culminated in indictments against three Mexican banking institutions and the arrest of more than two hundred individuals, many of them mid-level banking officials representing twelve of Mexico's nineteen largest banks. In addition to the indictments, seizures of more than a hundred bank accounts in the US and Europe are expected to net more than 130 million dollars. In a press release, Treasury Department Under Secretary for Enforcement Raymond Kelly noted that the success of Operation Casablanca was "extremely significant, because of the sheer volume of the amounts of money involved," and because "it exposes a link between the Cali and Juarez Cartels and their relationship with Mexican banks." At a press conference, Kelly was asked whether the Mexican authorities had cooperated with Operation Casablanca. He responded, "We had a lot of undercover officers involved who were at great risk, so this information was not shared with the Mexican government." Attorney General Janet Reno added, "When I talked with the Attorney General of Mexico today, they indicated that they wanted to cooperate in every way possible." So far, most of those arrested are Mexican citizens. No US citizens have been charged with any crime, nor have any US banking institutions been implicated in the sting--although one of the Mexican Banks, Banca Confia, was recently purchased by Citibank, and many of the seized accounts were located in US banks. Spokespersons for Citibank have said that Citibank was not aware of Confia's involvement in illegal activities. The Week Online asked Ian Vásquez, an expert on money laundering and Director of the Cato Institute's Project on Global Economic Liberty, whether Operation Casablanca had made a dent in the cartels. "Unfortunately," he said, "seizing a few million or even a hundred million dollars is not going to have much of an effect on a 50 billion dollar industry. In fact, it is more likely that in attacking the drug problem from the money laundering side will result in an even greater profit motive for the traffickers, more violence, and stronger incentives for institutional corruption."
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