Thread: National Bulk Cash Smuggling Center expands operations

I.C.E. News Release

December 12, 2011
Williston, VT

National Bulk Cash Smuggling Center expands operations

WILLISTON, Vt. — Government officials announced today that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) National Bulk Cash Smuggling Center (BCSC) has expanded its operations center to enhance efforts to combat bulk cash smuggling. This is part of the U.S. government's national strategy to fight transnational organized crime.

The announcement by ICE Director John Morton and Sen. Patrick Leahy highlights the center's role in enhancing national security through its focus on disrupting and dismantling criminal networks that utilize bulk cash smuggling to move the proceeds of their illicit activities.

"Transnational criminal organizations have to move their money from one place to another, which makes them vulnerable," said Director Morton. "The expansion of this center, made possible by Senator Leahy, enables ICE to target these organizations where it hurts – in their wallets. We will disrupt their flow of cash, defeat their smuggling methods and like never before, anticipate future smuggling tactics and stop them in their tracks."

"I am proud of Vermont's long tradition of support for and partnering arrangements with federal law enforcement agencies, including the expansion of the Bulk Cash Smuggling Center. This Center is providing an invaluable service to federal agents around the country, just like the Law Enforcement Support Center before it," said Senator Leahy. "I am so proud that Vermonters are making such critical contributions to our efforts to combat organized crime and enhance our border security."

Established in August 2009, the BCSC is an operational, intelligence driven investigative unit with the mission to challenge bulk cash smuggling from both national and international perspectives. The BCSC is focused on the disruption of facilitation pipelines used to move currency derived from illicit activity including drugs, weapons, human trafficking, foreign political corruption and contraband.

The newly expanded center is an integral part of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) ongoing efforts to target criminal organizations involved in the smuggling of large quantities of U.S. currency.

To further enhance these efforts, the center partnered with Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Intelligence Center to intensify the disruption of illicit criminal activities. The center has also established training partnerships with the Department of Transportation's Drug Interdiction Assistance Program (DIAP), along with private training entities that focus on criminal and terrorist interdiction.

The center was cited in President Obama's July 2011 "Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime" as critical to intelligence and information sharing in the fight against transnational organized crime. Since its inception, the center has initiated 474 criminal investigations, which have resulted in nearly 270 criminal arrests and the seizure of more than $170 million.

Nearly 7,000 ICE HSI special agents are dedicated to investigating the illegal movement of people and goods that enter and leave the United States, including contraband in the form of U.S. currency.

ICE HSI investigates immigration crime, human rights violations and human smuggling, smuggling of narcotics, weapons and other types of contraband, financial crimes, cybercrime and export enforcement issues. ICE HSI special agents conduct investigations aimed at protecting critical infrastructure industries that are vulnerable to sabotage, attack or exploitation.

To report an individual, business or organization that may be engaged in the illicit transportation or smuggling of currency, call the ICE HSI Tip Line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or report tips online.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

ICE is a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities. For more information, visit www.ICE.gov. To report suspicious activity, call 1-866-347-2423 or complete our tip form.

U.S. Dept of Homeland Security

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1112/1 ... liston.htm

Homeland Security’s National Bulk Cash Smuggling Center in Vermont follows the money

Cash smuggling center in Vt. has global crime task

By Wilson Ring
Associated Press
December 13, 2011

WILLISTON, Vt. - A small Department of Homeland Security office in Vermont helped disrupt one of the largest cocaine smuggling operations ever broken up by US agents, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said yesterday.

In a visit to Williston to tour the National Bulk Cash Smuggling Center’s new, expanded offices, John Morton, Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, spoke of the center’s role in what became known as Operation Pacific Rim. Agents at the Vermont center help investigate cash seizures across the world that can sometimes lead them into the heart of international organized crime.

In the Pacific Rim case, investigators in Vermont helped follow more than $41 million in Colombia and Mexico beginning in September 2009. The cash was found in bundles of $750,000 in the middle of packages of ammonium nitrate, which can be used in fertilizers and explosives, Morton said.


“This is all about organized crime; there is nothing about this that is mom and pop,’’ Morton said. “This is the proceeds of all sorts of illicit activity. It’s not just narcotics smuggling; think any large form of organized crime. You have to move your money. You can’t go down to the local bank at the corner of 4th and Main.’’

The cash smuggling center was established two years ago by the agency as part of its Vermont operations. Morton would not say how many people work for the cash smuggling office, but he said the agency has about 500 employees in Vermont as part of a Homeland Security presence of about 2,500.

The cash center is one of a series of specialized Homeland Security law enforcement offices in northwestern Vermont. Other offices track and search for illegal immigrants with criminal records or process the paperwork of legal residents and those seeking US citizenship.

Since its creation, the center has initiated 474 criminal investigations, which have resulted in 270 criminal arrests and the seizure of more than $170 million.

Over the years, US Senator Patrick Leahy, a former state’s attorney, helped bring many of those operations to Vermont.

“Any good prosecutor knows you follow the money, whether it’s a terrorism investigation or money-laundering scheme and that’s how you get the people and this will help them do it,’’ he said.

Tracking cash is critical to combating organized crime from terrorists, drug smugglers, and human traffickers.

“If you think back, after Sept. 11, one of the first counterterrorism tactical objectives was to shut down bank accounts across the globe,’’ said Travis Morris, a Norwich University assistant professor with expertise in terrorism. “This ties into a different realm of law enforcement that sometimes doesn’t get a lot of visibility.’’

Last year, a $1.3 million cash seizure was made in Maine.

“The seizure may have taken place in Maine, but ultimately it was destined to a location far away from Maine. So it’s up to us to put together that trail,’’ said Joseph Burke, head of the Bulk Cash office.

http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2011/12/13 ... story.html