6 Charged With Link to Drug Money

Five Los Angeles-area men were charged Friday with laundering at least $68 million in illicit drug money through the downtown jewelry district and local banks as part of an international narcotics ring.

A sixth man, who is an Argentine citizen, was charged with playing a key role in the scheme but authorities would not disclose whether he has been taken into custody.

According to documents filed in federal court in Los Angeles, the men were involved in laundering close to $250 million, but $180 million of that is the subject of another criminal case filed last year.

Friday’s arrests stemmed from a lengthy, multi-agency money laundering investigation called “Polar Cap.”

Assistant U.S. Atty. Mark J. Werksman, the lead prosecutor in the case, said that more information on the scope of the laundering operation would be forthcoming. “The numbers are stratospheric,” he said.

The original “Polar Cap” arrests were made in Los Angeles in February, 1989, when federal agents swept through the downtown jewelry district and arrested 31 people, charging them with operating perhaps the most elaborate money laundering scheme ever uncovered in the United States.

Ten of those people are currently on trial in federal court, charged with laundering about $350 million in drug proceeds through a downtown jewelry company called Andonian Bros., headquartered at 220 W. 5th St.

Trial is pending for 12 others charged with laundering $312 million through another downtown jewelry called Ropex Corp., which was headquartered at 550 S. Hill St.

Additionally, several of the individuals arrested last year have pleaded guilty to money laundering and are now cooperating with federal investigators. An affidavit filed by FBI agent Bruce Stephens, in connection with Friday’s arrests, reveals that those persons have provided considerable information to the government.

Documents filed Friday state that the defendants in the new case were co-conspirators with the owners of Ropex Corp.

The complaint, prepared by prosecutor Werksman, states that during the past four years people in the ring collected cartons of drug money packed like bricks and shipped by armored car from narcotics dealers in Los Angeles, New York City and Houston.

Once the money arrived in Los Angeles, the defendants counted cocaine proceeds utilizing high-speed money-counting machines, and repacked the currency into boxes, catalogue cases and other packages. The defendants then hand-carried or used armored cars to transport the money to local banks.

After the money was deposited, the defendants had it wired to bank accounts in New York City, Panama, Uruguay and other places, in an attempt to “conceal the nature, source, location and ownership of the cocaine proceeds, and to place the proceeds outside the United States.”

“Unknown co-conspirators located in Colombia, in turn, utilized these narcotics proceeds to pay the expenses of the narcotics enterprise, and to finance additional large shipments of cocaine to be imported into the United States,” according to the complaint filed Friday.

On Thursday and Friday, federal agents arrested Sarkis P. Tanijian, 32, of Northridge, Vartkes Jirair Agop Magarian, 56, of Van Nuys and Coroun M. Arslanian, 53, of Glendale. Also arrested were Jean J. Mahroukian, 41, and George Atik, 41, whose addresses were not available. Werksman said all the men were arrested in Los Angeles County and defense lawyers said some of them had been arrested at their offices in the downtown jewelry district.

Also charged but not present in court Friday was Celio Merkin, 57, an Argentine citizen, whose family lives in Montevideo, Uruguay. Werksman would not say if Merkin was in custody there.

However, Errol H. Stambler, a lawyer for one of the cooperating defendants, Sergio Hochman, said he thought it was highly likely that Merkin had been arrested in Uruguay.

“There is no way the government would have released this complaint against Merkin unless they had him in custody,” Stambler said. The complaint originally was filed, under seal, in March.

Stambler said he thought that the U.S. government would attempt to have Merkin extradited from Uruguay, the same procedure used to bring defendant Raul Vivas, also an Argentinian captured in Uruguay, to this country last December.

The six men named Friday are accused of money laundering and of aiding and abetting others in the distribution of cocaine. They face long prison terms if convicted.

The documents allege that Astro Jewelers, located at 610 S. Broadway and operated by Mahroukian and his brother, Albert Mahroukian, laundered $28 million between 1987 and February, 1989. The documents also allege that Universal Gold Exchange, located at 650 S. Hill and owned by Atik, laundered $32 million between 1987 and February, 1989.

Additionally, Atik laundered another $8.8 million between April and July 13 of this year, according to the documents.

Stephens’ affidavit also describes wiretaps and video surveillance of the defendants, lists huge numbers of bank transactions and includes a description of information provided by the individuals who pleaded guilty in the other money laundering cases that stemmed from the same investigation.

For example, Hochman, a Uruguyan, told FBI agents that he, Merkin and Vivas, who is a defendant in the $350-million money laundering case now on trial, first met in Uruguay to discuss the money laundering business in April, 1986. Hochman said that he opened Cambio Italia, a money exchange business in Montevideo with money put up by Merkin and Jorge Masihy, a Chilean.

Hochman said he came to Los Angeles in July, 1986, at Vivas’ request to work on money collection and transport. He told the FBI that in 1988 Merkin broke off from Vivas and started his own money laundering enterprise.

Manouk Demirjian, who owned a wholesale jewelry business in Los Angeles, and participated in the money laundering scheme for three years, is also cooperating with the government, after pleading guilty. So are Peter (Pepe) Fuentes, who was one of the coordinators of drug money collection in New York, Los Angeles and Miami, and Eduardo Ortiz, one of Merkin’s money couriers, according to Stephens’ affidavit.

Ortiz told FBI agent Bryan Tepper that he delivered money to Ropex and Astro Jewelers in late 1988. Ortiz also said that during the month of January, 1989, he made more than 15 deliveries of currency to Tanijian’s residence in Northridge.