$11.6 Million Seized as Ring Handling Drug Cash Is Cracked

Undercover agents infiltrated a money-laundering ring in Los Angeles and Miami and seized $11.6 million in drug profits over the past five months in the nation’s largest currency confiscation ever, authorities said Monday.

The investigation also netted 258 pounds of cocaine and resulted in the arrest of five South Americans, officials said.

The ring served as a “money exchanger,” converting drug profits from U.S. dollars into Colombian pesos to pay for more cocaine, federal authorities said.

The money “represents the largest collective seizure of cash ever in a single coordinated drug case,” U.S. Atty. Robert Bonner said at a news conference in Los Angeles to announce the arrests.

Miami Arrests

Two Venezuelan men accused of being the leaders of the operation, Carlos Samiento-Arechederra and Robert del Pino Sousa, were arrested Friday in Miami, along with one of their alleged operatives, Oswaldo Vera.

Enrique Fernandez, a Seal Beach resident accused of being the ring’s current operative in Southern California, was arrested Friday in Los Angeles.

Luis Morales, an Uruguayan national accused of being another operative of the ring, was arrested Friday in New York.

All five are being held without bond. A federal complaint unsealed Monday in Miami accused them of conspiring to aid and abet cocaine sales through laundering of drug profits.

The two Venezuelans were charged additionally with conspiring to thwart currency reporting laws. The suspects face 20 to 25 years in prison if convicted.

Authorities said the ring laundered $22 million during the last five months in transactions that ranged from $103,350 to $1,050,560. The suspects hauled the money to banks in duffel bags, paper bags and boxes and arranged to have it wired to banks in Panama, New York and Florida, the federal complaint said.

“Members of the group delivered cash to undercover agents in Miami and Los Angeles with instructions to obtain cashiers’ checks and wire transfers or to physically transport the cash out of the country to avoid filing currency transaction reports to banks and similar reports with the customs service,” authorities said.

Not Involved

Bonner said Security Pacific Bank employees cooperated with the investigation but were not involved in any illegal activity.

However, agents suspect one or several employees at other banks accepted kickbacks in return for not submitting Internal Revenue Service reports required for all currency transactions of $10,000 or more.

The cocaine was seized during several raids, the largest of which was a 220-pound find by Anaheim police Dec. 6, authorities said.

Bonner said denying $11.6 million in profits to South American drug dealers would “at least put a crimp in their style,” if not cripple the multibillion dollar cocaine industry.

Bonner said the undercover surveillance, dubbed Operation Greenback, was composed of special agents from the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Customs Service, prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office and local law enforcement officials from Los Angeles and Orange counties.

The coordination of the several agencies involved in the operation was made possible through the President’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, Bonner said.

Trial dates for the suspects were expected to be announced within a week to 10 days, Bonner said.