Report: U.S. Agents Laundered and Smuggled Millions in Drug Money

At the same time federal agencies were involved in the transport and distribution of “assault rifles” to Mexican drug cartels under project code name Fast and Furious, the U.S. Department of Justice was actively overseeing and involved in the execution of money laundering and cash smuggling operations totaling millions of dollars in drug proceeds.

Anti-narcotics agents working for the US government have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds to see how the system works and use the information against Mexican drug cartels, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Citing unnamed current and former federal law enforcement officials, the newspaper said the agents, primarily with the Drug Enforcement Administration, have handled shipments of hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal cash across borders.

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According to these officials, the operations were aimed at identifying how criminal organizations move their money, where they keep their assets and, most important, who their leaders are, the report said.

The agents had deposited the proceeds in accounts designated by traffickers, or in shell accounts set up by agents, the paper noted.

While the DEA conducted such operations in other countries, it began doing so in Mexico only in the past few years, The Times said.

As it launders drug money, the agency often allows cartels to continue their operations over months or even years before making seizures or arrests, the report said.

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