COLOMBIAN DRUG RING IS CRACKED BY U.S. AGENTS POSING AS BROKERS

Federal agents posing as corrupt stockbrokers infiltrated a major Colombian
cocaine-trafficking ring, leading to the seizure of $26 million in suspected
drug proceeds and dozens of arrests, the Atlanta U.S. attorney's office said
Wednesday.

The undercover sting, dubbed "Operation Juno," began after authorities
discovered 386 kilograms of liquid cocaine that had been hidden in frozen
fish and shipped to a distribution center in Atlanta. Agents from the Drug
Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service established a
phony stock brokerage firm called Airmark in suburban Atlanta, and offered
to provide money-laundering services to the alleged traffickers.

According to DEA agent Albert Latson, the faux brokers tried unsuccessfully
to peddle stocks to their underworld clients. "The stock market is doing
well, so we thought maybe we could entice them to invest in something that
would be seizable here in the states," he said. "But they told us their
return on investment was 400% on cocaine," so they insisted on plowing their
profit back into their trafficking business in Colombia, he added.

Much of the drug cash was laundered through the purchase of goods in the
U.S. that were shipped to Colombia and other countries, authorities said,
highlighting the growing role played by U.S. exporters in washing dirty
money.

Acting on instructions from the traffickers, the agents picked up cash in
gym bags, luggage and boxes on the streets of Dallas, Chicago, New York,
Miami and other cities in the U.S. and Europe, and placed it in undercover
bank accounts held in the name of the brokerage operation. Much of the money
was then wired to accounts controlled by U.S. exporters, who had arranged to
sell their goods to Colombian businesses that had bought the dollars through
Colombian middlemen known as peso brokers. Authorities declined to name the
exporters.

All told, the money found its way into 59 accounts at 34 U.S. banks and 282
accounts at 52 foreign banks, mostly in Colombia, authorities said.
Officials have moved to confiscate the money, though the account holders
will be able to keep it if they can show they didn't have reason to believe
it was tainted.

A federal grand jury in Atlanta indicted five Colombians believed to be
midlevel bosses of the trafficking organization. Donnie R. Marshall, acting
administrator of the DEA, lauded cooperation by Colombian authorities,
saying, "This is the first time Colombian authorities have seized this
volume of trafficker accounts based on information derived from a joint
investigation by U.S. law enforcement agencies."

Write to Michael Allen at mike.allen@wsj.com