Suspected Drug Dealer’s $1.2 Million Turned Over to Treasury

A U.S. District Court judge has ordered $1.2 million belonging to a suspected Mexican drug trafficker and deposited at a local Crocker National Bank branch turned over to the Treasury because the money was not reported to authorities and allegedly was illegally earned through narcotics transactions.

The funds, which were allegedly controlled by Ramiro Mireles Felix of Guadalajara, Mexico, were deposited at Crocker’s San Ysidro branch, on the U.S.-Mexican border. That branch has been under investigation intermittently by U.S. Customs agents since 1980 in connection with allegations that it had been used for the laundering of drug money.

Crocker was fined $2.25 million in August, 1985, for failure to report about 7,900 cash transactions of $10,000 or more as required by federal law. The 7,900 violations, which involved several bank branches between 1980 and 1985, totaled almost $4 billion. Violations by the San Ysidro branch totaled $24 million, Customs agents said.

In the latest case stemming from the San Ysidro branch, U.S. prosecutors charged that Mireles and other accomplices deposited $1.2 million in cash in eight accounts there. The U.S. government froze the funds in 1985 and filed a civil forfeiture action against the accounts in August, 1985.

Judge Rudi M. Brewster awarded the money, plus interest, to the Treasury on Wednesday after Mireles failed for the third time to appear for the taking of his deposition by prosecutors.

According to Assistant U.S. Atty. John A. Houston, Mireles and others illegally transported and deposited more than $2.1 million in various San Diego area banks, including Crocker in San Ysidro. Customs law requires individuals to file a report at the airport or port-of-entry when they bring $10,000 or more into the United States. Otherwise, the money is subject to seizure and forfeiture.

Most of the $2.1 million was allegedly brought into the country by Mireles, his brother, Pedro Mireles Felix, and other accomplices through San Ysidro but was not reported.

Pedro Mireles Felix and Luis Alberto Enriquez were indicted in June, 1985, by a federal grand jury for illegally transporting hundreds of thousands of dollars to and from Mexico. Customs agents said that Enriquez brought $400,000 in cash to the United States from Mexico on Feb. 26, 1985, and failed to report the money.

The next day, Enriquez was arrested at the border while trying to take $300,000 into Mexico. He was later released on $400,000 bail but failed to make court appearances and is a fugitive.

Customs agents later recovered $400,000 in cash that Pedro Mireles allegedly kept in two safe deposit boxes at a local bank. Pedro Mireles, like his brother, is also a fugitive.

Federal investigators learned of the large currency transactions by the Mireles brothers through reports filed by Crocker Bank with the Internal Revenue Service, said Houston. The charges against Ramiro Mireles allege that he earned the money from several drug deals.

According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Ramiro Mireles owned a ranch near Guadalajara where 35 tons of marijuana was harvested in 1983. An additional 20 tons was harvested in the same year at another ranch allegedly owned by Ramiro Mireles in the Mexican state of Zacatecas.

Ramiro Mireles has been a federal fugitive since 1972, when he escaped from Lompoc Correctional Institution, where he was serving a two-year sentence for smuggling aliens, Houston said.