Word: medellin
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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BCCI denies any pervasive corruption. U.S. Customs officials, though, say the bank laundered $14 million in narcotics funds for its undercover agents and considerably more for real criminals. They allege that BCCI was a greenback laundry for the Medellin cartel, the ruthless Colombian mob controlled in part by Pablo Escobar Gaviria and Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez that supplies most of the cocaine entering...
...initial C-Chase probe of narcotics "greenwashing" in Florida, which started in 1986, led them to BCCI's drug-money network. Posing as money launderers, "Musella," "Erickson" and other agents gradually infiltrated drug-trafficking circles. In May 1986 Gonzalo Moro Jr., reputed to be the chief launderer for the Medellin cartel, approached one of the agents with a proposition. If the agent were to open some Florida bank accounts and help Moro launder cash, Moro would pay a commission on each transaction...
...late 1987 Moro had introduced the agents to a Panamanian branch of BCCI for their laundering operation. The agents collected cash from Medellin dealers in the U.S. and deposited it at domestic banks, then wired the money to the account of a newly created shell corporation in the BCCI branch in Panama. The agents then provided the Colombian traffickers with signed blank checks that could be cashed at most banks...
Having extensively documented the laundering of funds through BCCI, U.S. Customs decided to close the net. In April, Erickson and Musella announced * their engagement and sent wedding invitations to top BCCI officers and Medellin hoods. The two then played out their romantic charade, making preparations for their nuptials...
...rival groups agreed years ago that the Medellin dealers would monopolize Miami and the Cali clan would control the New York trade. But the popularity of crack has expanded the more profitable New York traffic and apparently shattered the deal. One ominous result is that both Robert M. Stutman, head of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration office in New York, and Sterling Johnson, New York City's special narcotics prosecutor, say they have learned that the Medellin cartel has hired gunmen to kill them. Says Stutman: "We get very angry at this type of thing...