Local : 33 Jewelers Named in $250-Million Cocaine Money-Launder Scheme
Thirty-three people were charged today in a massive nationwide conspiracy to use jewelry businesses as fronts to launder at least $250 million in drug money through Los Angeles banks for Colombian cocaine traffickers.
Two complaints filed in U.S. District Court charge the defendants with conspiring to aid and abet unknown others in possessing and distributing cocaine, conspiring to launder money and impeding the function of the Internal Revenue Service.
Two affidavits filed to support the complaints said the masterminds of the plots were jewelers who used businesses in Los Angeles, New York, Florida, Texas and Uruguay to collect drug proceeds, deposit them into U.S. banks and have the money wired back to the traffickers in South America.
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