Mexican cartel worked with US-based group linked to Chinese underground banking to launder drug money: DOJ

The Department of Justice announced Tuesday that a five-year investigation revealed that a Mexican cartel worked with a United States-based group linked to Chinese underground banking to launder drug trafficking money.

A press release from the DOJ stated that "Operation Fortune Runner" uncovered that a money laundering network connected to the Sinaloa drug cartel coordinated with a money transmitting group based in San Gabriel Valley, California, to process "large amounts of drug proceeds in U.S. currency in the Los Angeles area." According to federal authorities, the California-based group has ties to Chinese underground banking.

'A partnership between Sinaloa Cartel associates and a Chinese criminal syndicate operating in Los Angeles and China.'

The groups allegedly concealed the proceeds and made the funds available to the cartel's members in Mexico and elsewhere.

"The Justice Department today announced a 10-count superseding indictment charging Los Angeles-based associates of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel with conspiring with money-laundering groups linked to Chinese underground banking to launder drug trafficking proceeds. During the conspiracy, more than $50 million in drug proceeds flowed between the Sinaloa Cartel associates and Chinese underground money exchanges," the DOJ's press release read.

Chinese and Mexican law enforcement agencies arrested fugitives named in the DOJ's superseding indictment after they fled the U.S., the department stated. Twenty-four defendants are facing multiple charges, including "one count of conspiracy to aid and abet the distribution of cocaine and methamphetamine, one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, and one count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business," the department reported.

Edgar Joel Martinez-Reyes, 45, of East Los Angeles, was accused of using numerous strategies to conceal the money's source, including trade-based money laundering schemes, "structuring" assets, and cryptocurrency.

The investigation resulted in the seizure of roughly $5 million in illicit drug proceeds, 302 pounds of cocaine, 92 pounds of methamphetamine, 3,000 Ecstasy pills, 44 pounds of psilocybin, ketamine, three rifles, and eight handguns.

U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California stated, "Dangerous drugs like fentanyl and methamphetamine are destroying people's lives but drug traffickers only care about their profits."

"To protect our community, therefore, it is essential that we go after the sophisticated, international criminal syndicates that launder the drug money," Estrada continued. "As this indictment and our international actions show, we will be dogged in our pursuit of all those who facilitate destruction in our country and make sure they are held accountable for their actions."

Drug Enforcement Administration administrator Anne Milgram explained that Mexican drug cartels are motivated by money and "responsible for the worst drug crisis in American history."

"This DEA investigation uncovered a partnership between Sinaloa Cartel associates and a Chinese criminal syndicate operating in Los Angeles and China to launder drug money. Laundering drug money gives the Sinaloa Cartel the means to produce and import their deadly poison into the United States," Milgram added.

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