26 US-COLOMBIA DRUG-MONEY ARRESTS ANNOUNCED IN NYC

NEW YORK -- Twenty-six people were arrested in Colombia and the
United States after federal authorities investigated a massive
Colombian money-laundering organization that processed millions of
dollars in drug proceeds through a black market peso exchange.

Along with the arrests, authorities announced the seizure of $10
million in cash and $6.5 million in narcotics.

In one court document filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, New
York Police Department Detective Jon Paul Figueroa described the
scheme, saying it was used to process some of the billions of dollars
generated each year by Colombian drug dealers.

He said narcotics traffickers used the Colombian Black Market Peso
Exchange to disguise the source of income because banking laws in the
United States and Colombia prevent them from depositing drug money
into U.S. accounts and then transferring the money overseas.

Figueroa said the techniques in which the peso exchange was used to
launder the money ultimately allows drug proceeds to end up in the
accounts of individuals and companies who appear to have no direct
involvement in narcotics-trafficking crimes.

The process, he added, frustrates the efforts of the United States,
Colombia and other governments around the world to enforce their
currency exchange and income reporting requirements as well as to
collect taxes and maintain integrity in financial institutions.

As part of the probe, Colombian law enforcement authorities obtained
judicial authorization to intercept telephones used by various peso
brokers in Colombia, Figueroa said.

He said the Colombian officers also identified money launderers in
the New York City area, including some of the defendants, who were
collecting and distributing drug proceeds in coordination with their
criminal associates in Colombia.

He said the probe also relied on multiple confidential informants who
worked with undercover officers posing as people in New York who were
able to receive narcotics proceeds and place them into the U.S.
banking system to be laundered through the peso exchange.