New York – Law enforcement agents broke up a Colombian money-laundering ring Wednesday, arresting 26 people in three countries and seizing more than $16.5 million in cash and drugs, drug enforcement officials said.
Arrests were made in the Colombian cities of Bogota and Cali and in New York, New Jersey, Florida and London, Drug Enforcement Administration officials said.
More than $10 million in alleged drug profits and more than $6.5 million in cocaine, heroin and marijuana were seized in the operation, conducted by DEA, the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Internal Revenue Service, New York city and state police, and Suffolk County police, authorities said.
In a court document filed in U.S. District Court, New York police Detective Jon Paul Figueroa said the scheme was used to process some of the billions of dollars generated each year by Colombian drug dealers.
He said narcotics traffickers used the Colombian black market peso exchange to disguise the source of income.
As part of the probe, he said, Colombian law enforcement authorities obtained judicial authorization to intercept telephones used by various peso brokers in Colombia. He said the Colombian officers also identified money launderers in the New York City area.
