Thread: Police, federal agents raid 25 'people's banks'

http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzre ... ness-print

Police, federal agents raid 25 'people's banks'
Court papers show drug dealers have been using remitting stores to send millions of dollars overseas

BY ROBERT E. KESSLER
Newsday Staff Writer

February 7, 2007

Two hundred federal agents and police raided 25 money remitter stores yesterday in the metropolitan area, seeking more than two dozen people charged with turning the businesses into money-laundering operations for the leaders of drug cartels.

Most of the raids and arrests by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, backed by city and state police, occurred in Queens, but there were some in Westchester and on Long Island.

The remitter stores, sometimes called "people's banks" and usually located in poorer or minority neighborhoods, are legal businesses that remit - or send - money by wire, usually to family members overseas.

According to court papers filed with the raids, "the typical legitimate customer of the ethnic money remitter is an immigrant who does not have the appropriate documentation necessary to open a bank account or for whom maintaining a bank account is too costly."

In addition, the remitter shops often serve as a sort of community service center, housing travel agencies, cell phone companies, car insurance agents, and places to make long-distance phone calls, the court papers say.

But drug dealers also have been using remitting stores to send hundreds of millions of dollars overseas, usually to Colombia, according to the papers filed by office of Roslynn Mauskopf, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, which coordinated the raids along with the bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In an ironic twist to the investigation, ICE agents and informants initially used millions of dollars seized from heroin and cocaine dealers to approach operators and employees of the stores as to whether they would transmit the money overseas without leaving records of the transactions.

By federal law, businesses dealing in cash such as remitters, as well as banks, must file reports with the government on all cash transactions of $10,000 or more, and keep records, available for inspection, on all transactions of $3,000, or more.

Spokesmen for Mauskopf and ICE declined to comment late yesterday.

Contributing to the popularity of the remitter shops is that a number of banks have halted involvement recently in the remitting business because of increased paperwork required by the government crackdown on possible sources of funding for terrorists overseas.

Yesterday's raids were the latest in a series over the past decade aimed halting the wiring of drug profits overseas. In one 1996 federal study, a small group of remitters in Queens sent back $800 million to Colombia in one year.

Those arrested are scheduled to be arraigned today in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on money-laundering charges. They face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Crackdown

Locations of several of the stores raided yesterday in northeast Queens. Many use the stores to wire money to relatives abroad, but officials say they're also used to send drug money to foreign suppliers.

1 Global Unitel 78-31 37th Ave., Jackson Heights

2 Global Unitel 83-13 Northern Blvd., Jackson Heights

3 OR Communications 32-65 84th St., Jackson Heights

4 Gameland 81-19 37th Ave., Jackson Heights

5 L & L Multiservice 84-08 37th Ave., Jackson Heights

6 Global Unitel 84-05 37th Ave., Jackson Heights

7 Jairo Express 82-12 Roosevelt Ave., Jackson Heights

8 Telefuturo 2000 82-14/16 Roosevelt Ave., Jackson Heights

9 Gameland 86-05 Roosevelt Ave., Jackson Heights

10 Atlantic Travel And Multiservices 93-11 37th Ave., Jackson Heights

11 Global Unitel 93-04B 37th Ave., Jackson Heights

12 Girotel 35-37B Junction Blvd., Corona

13 La Nacional 96-15H Roosevelt Ave., Jackson Heights

14 LY Express 40-04 Junction Blvd., Corona

15 Mia P.C. Computers And Multiservices 94-63 Corona Ave., Elmhurst

16 Servitel Corp. 101-09 Northern Blvd., Corona

17 Seguros Soluciones Multi-Service 102-17 Northern Blvd., Corona

18 Unitel USA 102-23 Roosevelt Ave., Corona

19 Mundo Travel 135-30 Roosevelt Ave., Flushing

Those arrested are scheduled to be arraigned today in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on money-laundering charges. They face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Good! It is nice to see the bad guys get what they deserve. I don't think that it is fair to call these businesses "banks". Real banks are highly regulated, and would not get away with such nonsense.

There is a (mom and pop) local store in Hamilton Ohio that has a sign in Spanish, stating that, no id is needed for cashing, payroll checks,the sign is under the glass on the counter.
Now these guys go in and cash big money, thousands at a time, then go out and pay the crews right in the parking lot the store is charging about 12% to cash a parole and 14% to cash personal.
The owner is a (documented idiot) permanent USA Hispanic citizen just been here a few years (ya right) and he really thinks no one knows it’s going on. Why else would he need 50,000 cash on a Saturday night? Hum?
It’s Banks, its Lawyers, its politicians, it’s the mom and pop store owner
This has to be stopped. If this was you or I, we would be in prison. These guys say I didn’t know and Guess what?Next Saturday night he’s doing it again at 15%.
This really pees me off, the guys got a boat, a Benz, and gold out the yahoo.
I had to save my whole life just to get it my company where it is today. I paid payments for my boat.
This (sad so and so) even plays golf

http://www.fugitivehunter.org/usmostwanted.html