Alleged drug traffickers fed $36,000 into cash machines, indictment claims
A Citigroup branch in Manhattan. Drug traffickers chose to launder money through Citigroup because they believed the bank was “more favourable”, with less robust fraud controls, according to senior US law enforcement officials. Photograph: Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesDrug traffickers chose to launder money through Citigroup because they believed the bank was “more favourable”, with less robust fraud controls, according to senior US law enforcement officials.
By splitting the sum into dozens of smaller deposits, prosecutors claim, they stayed below the $10,000 threshold at which banks are required to report cash transactions to the US Treasury. The two men – Guillermo Zambrano and Luis Belandria-Contreras – “were definitely trying to keep below the threshold so as not to send up any red flags, but I would imagine that 24 back-to-back deposits by the same person, totalling $16,000 would set off some type of an alert”, the senior official added.
Law enforcement officials have for years warned that Mexican drug traffickers and Chinese accomplices have become ever more adept at laundering cash via the legitimate banking system. Prosecutors said drug traffickers even “designed specially shaped boxes that fit the precise dimensions of the teller windows”.
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