Operación Plata Sucia

Agentes de tres países encabezados por la agencia antidrogas de EE UU (Drug Enforcement Administration DEA), luego de dos años de investigación, desmantelaron este miércoles 18 de octubre, una banda colombiana que se encargaba del lavado de activos; fueron arrestados 26 personas en tres países y confiscando más de 16,5 millones de dólares en dinero en efectivo y estupefacientes.

En la operación denominada Plata Sucia, participaron agentes de la DEA, el FBI, la agencia de seguridad de los servicios de aduana e inmigración (ICE), el IRS (Servicio de Rentas Internas), las policía municipal y del estado de Nueva York, y la policía del condado de Suffolk, en Nueva York; se realizaron arrestos en Bogotá y en Cali, Colombia; en Nueva York, Nueva Jersey, Florida, EE UU y en Londres.

Comunicado del DAS colombiano: 18/10/2006

En operación internacional Plata Sucia DAS captura 14 personas solicitadas en extradición y decomisa 450 millones de pesos.
Dentro de esta misma operación en New York fueron detenidas 12 personas y 3 en New Jersey.
Esta organización está sindicada de lavar más de 30 millones de dólares del narcotráfico en 4 años.

Plata Sucia, se inicia hace dos años con la DEA, el IRS Policía de Rentas Internas de los Estados Unidos, la Fiscalía General de la Nación y el DAS y buscaba el desmantelamiento de una red internacional de lavados de activos del narcotráfico.
De acuerdo con la investigación estas personas recogían grandes cantidades de dinero en los Estados Unidos en pequeñas denominaciones, el cual utilizaban para el lavado, el que realizaban a través de transferencias bancarias hacia Colombia, moneda que era retirada después de breve tiempo y entregada a sus dueños.
Muchos de los dineros que la organización recolecta para lavar, son transferidos a cuentas de empresas principalmente en China las cuales han hecho negocios con comerciantes Colombianos. Dichos comerciantes para cancelar su deuda en China, buscan los servicios de personas que integran organizaciones de lavadores de dinero quienes se encargan de poner las divisas y pagar las deudas, una vez confirmado por parte del comerciante el pago, este entrega en Colombia el equivalente de las divisas convertido en moneda local.
De otro lado en Colombia la organización tiene personas dedicadas a mantener constante contacto con los comerciantes especialmente de San Andresitos quienes utilizan los fondos ilícitos para que cancelen sus deudas adquiriendo el valor de la divisa más barato y pagando su equivalente en pesos Colombianos
En Bogotá fueron detenidos:

DIEGO FERNANDO CANOSONIA CRUZ QUICENOMIGUEL ANGEL GARCÉS ORESTES ZULUAGA CARDONACÉSAR AUGUSTO MEJÍA RODRÍGUEZELVIRA CÁRDENAS RODRÍGUEZMAUSOLAN GAMA RODRÍGUEZ AKA JOSÉ
En Cali :
GILDARDO GIRALDO GIRALDODIEGO FERNANDO DURÁN GERMÁN FREDY OCAMPOLUIS FERNANDO FLÓREZCARLOS ANTONIO GILELIZABETH MARTÍN PRADOROBER JULIO OSPINA
Durante los operativos fueron decomisados $ 450 millones de pesos en efectivo. Las capturas se realizaron simultáneamente en New York, New Jersey, en Bogotá y Cali.
Las 14 personas detenidas en Colombia están solicitadas en extradición sindicadas de lavado de activos y con cierto para delinquir.

Comunicado de la DEA: 202-307-7977

26 Arrested in International Drug Bust

Over $16.5 million in cash, drugs seized and arrests made in U.S. and Colombia
Associate SAC Chris Giovino addresses the press

More than $10 million dollars in drug proceeds seized throughout “Operation Plata Sucia”

(NEW YORK) – John P. Gilbride, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration in New York joined with federal and state law enforcement partners today to announce the coordinated takedown of an international money laundering investigation that targeted a Colombian criminal organizations that laundered millions of Colombian drug dollars through the sophisticated Black Market Peso Exchange, an illegal currency exchange system.
“Drug traffickers bring poison into our communities for one reason------to make money. Today’s indictments and arrests prove that we are going after what the drug traffickers cherish most----their money,” said Gilbride. “Narcotic traffickers who profit from the laundering of millions of dollars in drug proceeds can no longer feel safe beyond the borders of the United States. The DEA will continue to diligently follow the money and pursue all the members of these drug trafficking organizations both domestically and internationally.”

“Operation Plata Sucia,” resulted in the arrest of 26 defendants who were charged with money-laundering in Bogota and Cali, Colombia, New York, New Jersey and Florida. More than $10 million in drug proceeds and $6.5 million in cocaine, heroin, and marijuana were seized as part of the operation. Seizure warrants were also issued for bank accounts throughout the United States used to further the money-laundering process.
Of the 26 defendants arrested today, 7 were arrested in Bogota, Colombia, 7 were arrested in Cali, Colombia, 2 was arrested in Florida and 10 were arrested in New York.

According to two indictments and a complaint (collectively, the “Charging Documents”) unsealed in Manhattan Federal Court, the defendants arrested today participated in the Colombian Black Market Peso Exchange (the “BMPE”). The BMPE is an informal currency exchange system in which one or more “peso brokers” serve as middle-men between narcotics traffickers who control massive quantities of drug money in the United States and Colombian businesspeople seeking to purchase cheap U.S. dollars outside the highly-regulated Colombian banking system, it was charged.

According to the Charging Documents, the BMPE system involves three steps. First, narcotics traffickers sell their drug dollars in the United States to peso brokers in Colombia in exchange for Colombian pesos. Second, the peso brokers use criminal associates in the United States to collect the drug money and deposit the illicit funds into the United States banking system. Finally, the peso brokers sell the drug dollars to Colombian businesspeople seeking cheap dollars outside the legitimate Colombian banking system to purchase goods to be imported back to Colombia. All of the transactions in the BMPE process are verbal, without any paper trail, and the disconnection between the peso transactions in Colombia and the dollar transactions outside of Colombia make discovery of the money-laundering crimes by international law enforcement extremely difficult. Because of these inherent advantages, the BMPE system has become one of the primary methods through which Colombian narcotics traffickers launder their illicit funds.
One of the money-laundering methods detailed in the charging documents unsealed today involved the use of Colombian drug proceeds in New York to purchase used truck parts. More specifically, a peso broker, who was based in Colombia, obtained contracts to launder Colombian drug proceeds in New York, and then worked with other defendants to collect the money on the streets. After the drug money was collected, it was transferred to another defendant, who in turn exchanged the drug proceeds for used truck parts from a scrap yard he controlled in Lindenhurst, New York, that were ultimately shipped in containers to Venezuela and Colombia and resold for pesos, it was charged.

“Operation Plata Sucia,” was an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (“OCDETF”) investigation led by the New York OCDETF Strike Force, and involving the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the IRS, the NYPD Organized Crime Investigative Division, the DEA, ICE, the FBI, the NYSP, and the SCPD, as well as the Colombian Departmento Administrativo De Seguridad (“DAS”).

The investigation targeted the BMPE system from top to bottom -- from the peso brokers in Colombia, to the peso brokers’ criminal associates in the United States who collected the drug proceeds for placement into the United States banking system, right down to the businesspeople who knowingly acquired the cheap drug dollars to purchase goods to be imported back to Colombia.

If convicted, the defendants arrested today face a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment on the money laundering charges.

The charges contained in the charging documents are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Joining Gilbride at the press conference were MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, MARK EVERSON, the Commissioner of the United States Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), RAYMOND W.KELLY, the Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”), MARTIN FICKE, the Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) in New York, ANDREW ARENA, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) in New York, WAYNE BENNETT, Superintendent of the New York State Police (“NYSP”), and RICHARD DORMER, Police Commissioner of the Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD).