Thread: 22 indicted in Sinaloa Cartel money laundering scheme

22 indicted in Sinaloa Cartel money laundering scheme


By Doug Saunders, San Bernardino Sun
POSTED: 10/02/15, 7:06 PM PDT | UPDATED: 1 MIN AGO

A four-year Drug Enforcement Administration investigation into money laundering for a notorious drug cartel has led to the indictment of 22 people, including several from Southern California, authorities said Friday.

On May 30, Harmeet Singh, 54, of Chino Hills, Harinder Singh, 30, of Monrovia and Sucha Singh, 51, of Arleta were arrested at their homes. Ramesh Singh, 46, of Alhambra turned himself in to federal agents on June 2, a Department of Justice news release said.

Officials allege the 22 defendants laundered drug trafficking proceeds in Canada and the United States generated from unspecified amounts of sales of drugs for the Sinaloa Cartel and its affiliates.

The others named in the indictment who have been taken into custody were identified as Miguel Melendrez Gastelum, 35, of Coachella; Shannon Aubut, 30, of Ontario, Canada; Paul Alan Jacobs, 42, of Venice; Jose De Jesus Montenegro, 49, also of Coachella; Breidi Alberto Espinoza, 28, of Corona; Alberto Diaz, 28, of San Diego; Christopher Fagon, 37, also of Ontario, Canada; Jose Luis Barraza, 47, also of Coachella, and Sanjeev Wadhwa, 36, an Indian national. Their trial is set to begin in May.

Seven others named in the indictment are listed as fugitives. They were identified as Jesus Manuel Perez Rios, 33, of Coachella; Sanjeev Bhola, Balwat Bhola and Bakshish Sidhu, all Indian nationals; Jason Robert Carey, 37; Tina Pham, 25, and another man only known to authorities as “Buddy, all from Canada.

The most recent arrest was that of a Canadian man as he tried to enter the U.S. in Buffalo, New York. Gurkaran Singh Isshpunani, the lead defendant in a grand jury indictment, was placed into custody Sept. 14.

The indictment, returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles in November 2014, accuses Isshpunani of being the leader of an international “hawala” ring transferring drug proceeds for the cartel.

A “hawala” works by transferring money without actually moving it, according to the Department of the Treasury. It works through connections that allow for the establishment of a network to conduct the hawala transactions.

http://www.dailynews.com/general-new...ndering-scheme

Most countries in the world are dens of iniquity. The more people we let in here, the faster we will go downhill. Canada and Australia and New Zealand have been doing better than us, with 1/10 the population. But it looks like Canada is sliding off the cliff, too.