The DEA and (Covert) Money “Laundering”

After the failed Fast and Furious operation that allowed thousands of firearms to pass into Mexico for use by drug traffickers, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) — with the backing of the U.S. Department of Justice — launched another high-risk operation with covert agents to launder money from the profits of drug cartels in Mexico, transfer the funds to the United States and deposit them in U.S. bank accounts held by drug traffickers in order to send resources to their shell companies and other supporters. We learned about the cartel money-laundering operation through a comprehensive and documented report by Ginger Thompson, published on Sunday in The New York Times.

It also became known to congressional members from the U.S. House of Representatives, which will add a new investigation to the one already underway for months over the Fast and Furious operation, which no one in the Mexican government knew about and which did nothing more than emit a weak protest to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) — which is responsible for the operation — and which allowed this operation to continue in our country, as if nothing happened. The difference with the DEA money-laundering operation is that the Mexican government was aware of it, according to information from The New York Times that no one has refuted. And what if this operation also fails, or did it already fail?

This is another covert, high-risk and unacceptable operation that has taken place over the past few years. No one knows now how much money has been laundered or what the results of the operation have been, if it has had “success” or if it has served the cartels that it has intended to infiltrate and combat. Sure, one cannot even imagine what would happen if the operation were lost in corruption, because in the case of DEA agents, that never happens!

Does someone in Mexico have all the information about these operations and know how much money is being laundered? Does this someone know what this operation has done, or what information it has provided, or how many high-profile drug traffickers have been detained, or which banks are participating in this game? Also, why do drug traffickers have open bank accounts in the United States?

It is time for the Mexican Senate to open its own investigation, not only into the two scandalous operations, but also into the way in which U.S. agencies operate in our territory. Or do we have to wait until the next New York Times article?

One question raised by Ginger Thompson’s information is that these types of covert operations have been prohibited in Mexico since 1998 – during the Ernesto Zedillo government – after a cross-border operation by customs agents. Similar operations were renewed in recent years.

Here in Mexico, we weren’t even informed — not the average citizen or analyst, not even the Senate. The following paragraph of the article is a must-read and sounds all the alarms:

“But that changed in recent years after President Felipe Calderón declared war against the country’s drug cartels and enlisted the United States to play a leading role in fighting them because of concerns that his security forces had little experience and long histories of corruption.”

Is the war waged by Mexico to stop the entry of drugs into the United States led by Washington? Or do we simply provide the territory and more than 40,000 dead? Is this really a war that isn’t ours?

The covert money-laundering operations are supervised by the U.S. Department of Justice in the United States. Wow, that puts us at ease! But they aren’t supervised by the Mexican government?

Many questions arise. For example, how much money from drug-related money laundering is in American banks? The article does not give exact numbers, but says there is “a lot.” But there are some clues, for example, that indicate that even if someone told the covert agents that they would be leaving with $250,000 and arriving with $1 million, the shipment would nevertheless pass and then be transported in aircraft belonging to the government of the United States to be deposited there. It also affirms that the Justice Department must authorize the laundering of more than $10 million in one operation. The DEA agents that pass for money launderers for drug cartels also collect remittances in the United States and deposit them in American banks. In sum, these operations are valued at several hundreds of billions of dollars each week. What has taken place with that dark and shady operation? How are sacks of money from covert agents transported? And what is their final destination?

Last year the DEA seized $1 billion in cash and assets from drug-related activities (in our country), while Mexico seized only $26 million in money-laundering investigations. The amounts pale when one considers the $18 billion to $39 billion of drug money that flow between the two countries, according to Ginger Thompson.

The DEA operation is risky and unacceptable for Mexico if one considers at least two issues: the comprehensive “experience” that American banks have in drug-related money laundering that sells and flows through the world’s largest illicit drug market and the American Union’s obligation to do in its own territory what would be considered an equal collaboration. In the United States, neither drug consumption, nor drug trafficking, nor money laundering nor arms trafficking is combated. Mexico is very much compromising its own sovereignty.