Thread: Mexican police seize over $1 MILLION in drug money

Mexican police seize over $1 mn in drug money

Published August 21, 2012
EFE

Police in the northwestern Mexican state of Baja California seized more than $1 million that the Sinaloa cartel had made from drug sales in Los Angeles, security officials said.

State police officers spotted two suspects Sunday night driving around the border city of Tijuana, located near San Diego, California, and arrested them, Baja California Public Safety Secretary Daniel de la Rosa Anaya said.

A search of the vehicle belonging to the suspects, who were identified as Elias Lopez Lopez and Armando Limon Arredondo, turned up $952,000 in cash, De la Rosa Anaya said.

The suspects told investigators that more cash was stashed at their house, where police found another $102,000 and arrested two women, the public safety secretary said.

The money was being taken to Sinaloa state, which is also in northwest Mexico, De la Rosa Anaya said.

"It was part of the large sums of millions of dollars being shipped so it could get to the leaders of that criminal organization, of (Joaquin) 'Chapo' Guzman and (Ismael) 'Mayo' Zambada," the public safety secretary said.

The money was presumably going to be used by the Sinaloa cartel to buy weapons or real estate, De la Rosa Anaya said.

The case has been turned over to federal prosecutors so the suspects can be investigated for violations of Mexico's drug laws, the El Sol de Tijuana newspaper reported.

The Sinaloa cartel is led by Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman, Mexico's most-wanted man.

Guzman has been on the list of U.S. drug kingpins since June 1, 2001.
The Sinaloa organization, sometimes referred to by officials as the Pacific cartel, is the oldest drug cartel in Mexico and has an extensive drug distribution network in the United States.

Guzman, who was arrested in Guatemala in 1993 and pulled off a Hollywood-style jailbreak when he escaped from the Puente Grande maximum-security prison in the western state of Jalisco on Jan. 19, 2001, is considered the most powerful drug trafficker in the world.

Chapo Guzman tops the list of Mexico's 37 most-wanted criminals and is on the Forbes list of the world's richest people.

The Sinaloa cartel, according to intelligence agencies, is a transnational business empire that operates in the United States, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the Americas and Asia. EFE

Mexican police seize over $1 mn in drug money | Fox News Latino

Cartel suspect smuggled millions in cash

Written by Sandra Dibble
9:42 p.m., Aug. 21, 2012

TIJUANA — A U.S. citizen suspected of working for the Sinaloa cartel has confessed to smuggling up to $24 million in U.S. currency into Mexico, Baja California authorities said Tuesday.

Elias López López, known as El Pantera, was in charge of transporting drug money from Los Angeles to Tijuana for the cartel, according to a statement by the Baja California Public Safety Secretariat. He was arrested Sunday in Tijuana in a car with close to $1 million in cash.

After the arrest, López allegedly told authorities that for several months he had smuggled up to $500,000 per week into Mexico.

The money came from a contact in Los Angeles, authorities said, with the majority of the cash eventually destined for the city of Culiacán in the state of Sinaloa, where it was delivered to Sinaloa cartel leaders.

A native of Los Angeles, López said he was recruited by a classmate to work for the drug trafficking organization, authorities said. López was also the owner of a seafood restaurant in Tijuana called Centro Botanero El Cora, authorities said, and he used the business to launder drug money.

Cartel suspect smuggled millions in cash | UTSanDiego.com