From the information that surfaced, ‘ Eaglewood’  probably started in 2007 when undercover detectives were following two convicted drug dealers to an unknown individual, who was later identified as Eyad Iktilat. After being arrested, one of them was found to have been carrying over 1,36 million euros in a bag.

Iktilat appeared to be a big fish, with plenty of luxury cars and real estate. Royal Oak Taxis, a rundown, fortified garage and cafe was run by Israeli-born Iktilat.  He was also a director of the nearby Euro Foreign Exchange, through which up to £1m a day in drug money would be laundered.

Iktilat, of Euston, north London, denied counts of money laundering, conspiracy to supply cocaine and cannabis, and possession of cocaine, but was convicted after a five-month trial. Initially jailed for 21 years, his sentence was increased to 30 on appeal. “He did not believe he was doing anything wrong. He believed he was acting as a bank,” said an officer. In two years, an estimated £100m passed through the ramshackle breeze-block taxi building. It was then taken to the bureau de change. There, manager Jean-Claude Frigieri, 56, of West Molesey, Surrey, bought up to €450,000 at a time, sometimes several times a day, from a bank note wholesaler called Interchange, which had no idea about his criminal dealings. He was convicted of money laundering and jailed for 10 years.

The money laundering consisted of buying 500 euro notes at Euro Foreign Exchange with drug money; the first stage in concealing the dirty origin of the money. And a perfect way to reduce the weight and volume of the drug money. Did you hear that Colombian cartels prefer 500 euro notes as payment for supplying cocaine rather than $100 notes?

The Guardian reports that Iraqi refugee Maythem al-Ansari was the main banker. When police swooped on his £3m west London home they had to use a digger and angle grinders to smash through a fortified security wall. He arrived in Britain in 1999 as Mithum Mohammed, later changing his name to al-Ansari, a famous banking name in Saudi Arabia. He worked as a bus driver but swiftly built up a multi-million-pound property empire. By 2004 he was investing in restaurants and vineyards and specializing in properties in Park Lane and Mayfair. The 42-year-old used business links to lend an air of legitimacy, and could exchange large amounts without attracting suspicion, making him the perfect cover for someone to change large amounts of cash into euros.

For a 5% ‘ introduction fee’ criminals could use the money laundering services of the taxi company, being the exchange to 500 euro notes. Details on the use of the notes were not made public, but you can assume they were used to pay for the cocaine on one hand, and used to invest in real estate and other goods for the criminals themselves on the other. Only a couple of criminals actually build up a ‘ legitimate’  business with dirty money. Most of them just try to find ‘clever’ ways to enjoy their lifestyles without being caught in the web…

Among the sentenced was a London ‘hero’ fire fighter, commended for his role in the bombing response, who was going down in the aftermath of the London bombings. He was on sick leave suffering from ‘ stress’ .  Owning two audis and leading a ‘ champagne lifestyle’ , some people had some doubts about the ‘ stress’ . He was however arrested while putting 100 kilogram of cocaine in smaller bags. The drugs had been picked up from a beach in the a coastal town the previous night, having been smuggled from continental Europe on a rigid-hulled inflatable speedboat. Try to talk you out of that one; that must be stressy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12120309

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11930487

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/05/police-smash-london-drug-gangster-syndicate

http://www.policeprofessional.com/news.aspx?id=11787

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11193687

Coronel had used two houses located in the Guadalajara neighborhood of Colinas de San Javier as “safe houses”. In these safe houses the militairy uncovered weapons (grenades, handgunds), jewelry, vehicles and cash. More specifically; the soldiers found $ 7 million in cash. Since a US-Mexican study estimated MX money laundering at $ 19 billion annually, $ 7 million is probably just a week’s worth for the former King of Ice, but still significant enough to hurt. Hopefully. Let’s see what reaction this blow will have; the Mexican situation is still fluid.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/07/29/mexico.cartel.leader.killed/?hpt=T2#fbid=EGNOAszoT6g

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignacio_Coronel_Villarreal

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/01/nacho-coronel-obituary

http://financialcrimeonline.com/archives/898

http://financialcrimeonline.com/archives/886

http://financialcrimeonline.com/archives/848

The (DEA) investigation apparently started when in 2005 dogs sniffed cocaine in an airplane in Miami. The money used to buy the plane was traced back to Mexican exhange houses; that is how the interest for the money flow from the exhange houses from Wachovia started.

Wachovia admitted offering correspondent banking services to 22 Casa de Cabio’s  (CDC) through three methods: wire-transferring money on behalf of third-party customers; accepting bulk cash transfers made by armored cars and other methods; and accepting checks and traveler’s checks put in pouches or digitally scanned through “remote deposit capture.”

From May 2004 to May 2007, Wachovia processed at least $373 billion in wire transfers on behalf of CDCs, the bank admitted. It processed $4.7 billion in bulk cash and $47 billion in ‘remote deposite capture’ deposits for all correspondent banking customers, including Mexican exchange houses, Wachovia admitted.

The case is USA v. Wachovia Bank, 10-cr-20165, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida (Miami).

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-17/wachovia-to-pay-160-million-to-end-laundering-probe-update1-.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/business/18launder.html

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/10/21/un.heroin.trade/index.html

http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2009/October/unodc-reveals-devastating-impact-of-afghan-opium.html

“ICE’s bilateral cooperation between its foreign law enforcement partners has significantly furthered ICE’s mission to disrupt the criminal organizations that are smuggling narcotics into the United States and smuggling bulk cash shipments out, which they use to fund additional criminal activities,” said the Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for ICE John Morton. “This seizure of more than $41 million has surely put a dent in the illegal activities of the individuals involved.”

“We recognize both the U.S. government and the Mexican authorities as our best allies in the fight against organized crime and thank and congratulate ICE for their support and collaboration,” said General Oscar Naranjo Trujillo, director general of the Colombian National Police. “We also praise the dedicated and professional work of 152,000 Colombian policemen that work day and night towards security and coexistence amongst Colombians and the work of the members of the Customs and Tax Police and the Anti-Narcotics Directorate. We are determined to bring to justice the suspected owners of these illegal funds, as well as other drug traffickers that through their illegal activities damage Colombia and its allied countries.”

Alfredo Gutierrez, chief of Mexico’s Tax Administration Service, said, “The data we collect electronically from the trade community on a regular basis and the data we receive from and crosscheck with our international partners is now processed through highly sophisticated systems and cutting-edge technologies. Our personnel have been trained to make the best of these instruments and the results are there.”

* On Sept. 9, Colombian customs inspectors and Colombian National Police (CNP) officers seized $11.2 million in U.S. currency hidden in two shipping containers, each containing 20 big bags filled with ammonium sulfate. Sixteen of the 40 bags contained $700,000 in $20 dollar bill denominations. The containers departed on a vessel from the port of Manzanillo, Mexico, destined to the west coast port of Buenaventura, Colombia. According to Colombian customs inspectors, this seizure is the most cash ever seized by police at a port in Colombia.

* On Sept. 10, a second seizure of U.S. currency estimated at $11.2 million was also seized at the port of Buenaventura.

* Additionally on Sept. 11, ICE Attaché Mexico City special agents reported that information developed by ICE Attaché Bogota agents resulted in a third seizure of U.S. currency estimated at $11 million discovered hidden inside two shipping containers containing sodium sulfate at the Port of Manzanillo, Mexico.

* On Sept. 14, ICE special agents along with Colombian authorities discovered in Buenaventura three additional shipping containers containing approximately $5 million in $100 and $50 dollar bill denominations concealed within bags labeled as sodium sulfate. These shipping containers also originated in Manzanillo.

* On Sept. 18, a second seizure was recovered in the amount of $2.15 million in $100 dollar bill denominations concealed within two containers with similar bags containing sodium sulfate aboard a vessel that arrived in Manzanillo.

The ports of Buenaventura and Manzanillo are key points of a well-known route used for smuggling cocaine northward to Mexico and then on to the United States, and for sending cash back into Colombia.

The ICE Attaché Bogota office is the lead U.S. law enforcement agency in this bulk cash smuggling investigation, with assistance from ICE Attaché Mexico City, the Colombian National Police, Colombian Department of Treasury, Mexican Customs, and the Mexican Assistant Attorney General for Special Investigations and Organized Crime (Siedo).

ICE is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, charged with enforcing a wide array of laws, including those related to financial crime, trade fraud, narcotics smuggling, cash smuggling, and others. ICE has taken a leading role in combating bulk cash smuggling, teaming in 2005, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to launch Operation Firewall, a comprehensive law enforcement operation targeting criminal organizations involved in the smuggling of large quantities of U.S. currency. The ICE Office of International Affairs (OIA) is a critical asset in this mission, responsible for enhancing national security by conducting and coordinating international investigations involving transnational criminal organizations and serving as ICE’s liaison to counterparts in local government and law enforcement.

Since its inception in 2005, Operation Firewall efforts have resulted in approximately 524 arrests and 3,275 seizures in the United States and abroad totaling over $260 million. Over $100 million has been seized by foreign authorities. In Jan 2007, Colombia authorities working in conjunction with ICE and other federal authorities found approximately $85 million in U.S. currency, euros and gold bars in five stash houses in Cali, Colombia. This is the largest cash seizure in Colombian history.

This will be a big blow to the cartels; and some people involved will be held accountable for the breach in operational security will… As it always is; someone’s loss is the other’s gain… Or is it? Anyway, it is all about the money and this is a great success.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0909/090928washingtondc.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSjEgYGdCPs&feature=player_embedded

The cash and jewelry were wrapped up in packages in the Son Banya area in Palma. Because the packages were placed under concrete slabs the police has to use heavy machinery. In related house searches the police seized cocaine, marijuana and heroine.

And even though stashing your criminal money this way has its pros and cons, according the law in most jurisdictions it still is considered money laundering.

http://tinyurl.com/yd3zwhc

http://tinyurl.com/ydkgxpl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c31n0oRT9ds

While the European market has been expanding, use in the United States has declined from its peak in the 1980s, the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime said in its 2009 annual report, issued in July.

About 1,000 tons of pure cocaine are produced each year, nearly 60 percent of which evades law enforcement interception and makes it to market, the report said. That’s a wholesale global market of about $70 billion.

Criminals traffic about 250 tons to Europe each year, though not all of it makes it there, the U.N. said. The European market totals about $11 billion. About 27 percent of the cocaine that entered Europe in 2006 came from Africa, the United Nations said.

Huge profits make Europe particularly attractive. Two pounds of uncut cocaine can sell for $22,000 in the United States but for $45,000 in Europe, analyst Ashley-Louise Bybee wrote in a policy journal this year. The Justice Department said the price in Europe can be three times more than in the United States.

A strong euro and weaker dollar also make Europe attractive to traffickers because of favorable exchange rates. There’s also the fact that the European Union recently issued a 500 euro note, currently equivalent to about $700. The largest U.S. denomination in circulation is the $100 bill. Traffickers prefer the large euro notes because they are easier to carry in large quantities.

For example, Benson said that $1 million in $100 bills weighs 22 pounds, while $1 million in 500 euro notes weighs 3.5 pounds.

Though Europe is highly attractive to traffickers, it can have tight, Western-style security. So the Colombian and Mexican cartels have discovered that it’s much easier to smuggle large loads into West Africa and then break that up into smaller shipments to the continent — mostly Spain, the United Kingdom and France.

West Africa is a smuggler’s dream, suffering from a combination of factors that make the area particularly vulnerable. It is among the poorest and least stable regions in the world. Governments are weak and ineffective and, as a top DEA chief testified to the U.S. Senate this summer, officials are often corrupt.

Law enforcement also is largely riddled with corruption. Criminal gangs are rampant. Foot soldiers can be recruited from a large pool of poor and desperate youth.

“It’s a point of least resistance,” Benson said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/09/21/africa.drug.cartels/index.html

Money laundering through art is seen more often (or even quite common?). You start with a small collection which you sell for an extremely high price (what is the value of art anyway?). Of course indirectly you buy your own art. In the company books it shows as a nice profit, but it actually is your own meth money that you now can represent as legitimate business income. You need a couple of strawmen who drop by and buy your stuff at insane prices. Nothing that a streetsmart dealer won’t be able to arrange.

The meth was most likely manufactured in Mexico, and each month’s shipments had a street value of about $2 million. These guys had a lot of reading to do….

 http://bit.ly/gGVNr

BBC World Radio had an open and honest interview with Jaime Beltram. Jaime was a money mule and drug smuggler for Mexican cartels. His story probably represents a lot of Mexicans struggling for a living for their families. He started as an artist but could not really make ends meet (or should I say sustain a lifestyle one step up). He earned $50 a month. When he got connected to some people related to the drug cartels he started doing ‘administrative and financial’ stuff (soft words for money laundering) and beefed up his income to $1,000 a month. He never touched drugs but was a money man. He speaks about the risk of smuggling drugs, and is not sure whether smuggling cash is any safer. Some criminals specialize in robbing other criminals. And a pile of cash is probably the most rewarding loot. Jaima handled around $1.5 million each time (cartels obviously do not put all their eggs in one basket).

A normal day in his life was to take the money to several bureaux de change (casa di cambio), to change it to larger denominations or currencies. He was paid 1% for his services. Jaime mentioned that people think the profits for smuggling drugs are higher, but he feels that is a myth. Aside from changing money he also smuggled cash as a money mule.

Jaime used to take money to Bogota and Lima, to smart offices in corporate buildings: “I would go to a normal hotel, everybody wore suits, you never saw anyone armed, nor any of the other stereotypical trappings associated with drug trafficking. I think the man who owned the money was an administrator of some enterprise and he also had this as an illegal enterprise. At the end of the day, you do business and you sell. I got stopped at the airport in Mexico City and I had US$400,000 on me. The narcos got in touch with a friend of mine, they said there wouldn’t be a problem, they would pay for lawyers etc, … not because of me obviously, but to recover the money.

 Jaime served 5 yeards in prison and is now ‘free of financial crime’.

If you like to read about financial crime experts (as in: professionals on the other side of the fence) browse through the ‘confession of a money launder’ series on worldcheck; especially the earlier posts are interesting reads.

Let us know if you come across great stories from real ‘financial crime’ life or read interesting books and websites. We will share them on this site and the upcoming  ’links’ page.

 http://www.world-check.com/confessions/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2008/11/081029_narcolife.shtml