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THE BULLETIN • SUNDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2011
U.S. agents laundering Politics splitting up urban areas profits of drug cartels CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING
By Michael Cooper
New York Times News Service
• Millions of dollars smuggled as DEA’s role in Mexico increases the operations, the official would only say, “A lot.” WASHINGTON — Under“If you’re going to get into cover U.S. narcotics agents the business of laundering have laundered or smuggled money,” the official added, millions of dollars in drug pro- “then you have to be able to ceeds as part of Washington’s launder money.” expanding role in Mexico’s Former counternarcotfight against drug cartels, ac- ics officials, who also would cording to current and for- speak only on the condition of mer federal law enforcement anonymity about clandestine officials. operations, offered a clearer The agents, primarily with glimpse of their scale and how the Drug Enforcement Ad- they worked. In some cases, ministration, have handled the officials said, Mexican shipments of hundreds of agents, posing as smugglers thousands of doland accompalars in illegal cash nied by U.S. auacross borders, “They tell you thorities, pick up those officials traffickers’ cash said, to identify they’re bringing in Mexico. U.S. how criminal or- you $250,000, agents transport ganizations move and they the cash on govtheir money, ernment flights to where they keep bring you a the United States, their assets and, million. What’s where it is demost importantly, the agent posited into trafwho their leaders fickers’ accounts, supposed to are. and then wired to They said do then, tell companies that agents had depos- them no, he provide goods ited the drug proand services to the ceeds in accounts can’t do it? cartel. designated by They’ll kill him.” In other cases, traffickers, or in DEA agents, pos— a former ing as launderers, shell accounts set DEA agent pick up drug proup by agents. The officials ceeds in the Unitsaid while the DEA ed States, deposit conducted such operations in them in banks in this country other countries, it began do- and then wire them to the trafing so in Mexico only in the fickers in Mexico. past few years. The high-risk The former officials said activities raise delicate ques- the drug agency tried to seize tions about the agency’s ef- as much money as it launfectiveness in bringing down dered — partly in the fees drug kingpins, underscore the operatives charged trafdiplomatic concerns about fickers for their services and Mexican sovereignty and blur another part in carefully chothe line between surveillance reographed arrests at pickup and facilitating crime. As it points identified by their unlaunders drug money, the dercover operatives. agency often allows cartels to continue their operations over Rule often waived And the former officials months or even years before said federal law enforcement making seizures or arrests. Agency officials declined agencies had to seek Justice to publicly discuss details of Department approval to launtheir work, citing concerns der amounts greater than $10 about compromising their in- million in any single operavestigations. But Michael S. tion. But they said the cap was Vigil, a former senior agency treated more as a guideline official who is working for a than a rule, and that it had private contracting company been waived on many occacalled Mission Essential Per- sions to attract the interest of sonnel, said, “We tried to high-value criminal targets. “They tell you they’re bringmake sure there was always close supervision of these op- ing you $250,000, and they erations so that we were ac- bring you a million,” one complishing our objectives, former agent said of the trafand agents weren’t laundering fickers. “What’s the agent money for the sake of launder- supposed to do then, tell them no, he can’t do it? They’ll kill ing money.” Another former agency of- him.” It is not clear whether such ficial, who asked not to be identified speaking publicly operations are worth the about delicate operations, risks. So far there are few said, “My rule was that if we signs that following the monare going to launder money, ey has disrupted the cartel’s we better show results. Other- operations, and little evidence wise the DEA could wind up that Mexican drug traffickers being the largest money laun- are feeling any serious finanderer in the business, and that cial pain. Last year, the DEA money results in violence and seized about $1 billion in cash and drug assets, while Mexico deaths.” seized an estimated $26 milOnce forbidden lion in money laundering inThe laundering operations vestigations, a tiny fraction that the United States con- of the estimated $18 billion to ducts elsewhere — about 50 $39 billion in drug money that Attorney General Exempt flows between the countries Operations are under way each year. around the world — had been Mexico has tightened reforbidden in Mexico after U.S. strictions on large cash purcustoms agents conducted a chases and on bank deposcross-border sting without its in dollars in the past five notifying Mexican authorities years. But a proposed overin 1998, which was how most haul of the Mexican attorney U.S. undercover work was general’s office has stalled, its conducted there up to that architects said, as have propoint. posed laws that would crack But that changed in recent down on money laundered years after President Fe- through big corporations and lipe Calderón declared war retail chains. against the country’s drug “Mexico still thinks the best cartels and enlisted the United way to seize dirty money is to States to play a leading role in arrest a trafficker, then turn fighting them because of con- him upside down to see how cerns that his security forces much change falls out of his had little experience and long pockets,” said Sergio Ferrahistories of corruption. gut, a professor at the AutonoToday, in operations super- mous Technological Institute vised by the Justice Depart- of Mexico and the author of ment and orchestrated to get a book on money launderaround sovereignty restric- ing, which he said was “still a tions, the United States is run- sensitive subject for Mexican ning numerous undercover authorities.” laundering investigations Calderón boasts that his against Mexico’s most power- government’s efforts — deful cartels. One DEA official ploying the military across said it was not unusual for the country — have fractured U.S. agents to pick up two or many of the country’s powerthree loads of Mexican drug ful cartels and led to the armoney each week. A second rests of about two dozen highofficial said as Mexican car- level and midlevel traffickers. tels extended their operations But there has been no sigfrom Latin America to Africa, nificant dip in the volume Europe and the Middle East, of drugs moving across the the reach of the operations country. Reports of human had grown as well. When rights violations by police offiasked how much money had cers and soldiers have soared. been laundered as a part of And drug-related violence has By Ginger Thompson
New York Times News Service
left more than 40,000 people dead since Calderón took office in December 2006. The death toll is greater than in any period since Mexico’s revolution a century ago, and the current policy of close cooperation with Washington may not survive election-year politics in Mexico. “We need to concentrate all our efforts on combating violence and crime that affects people, instead of concentrating on the drug issue,” said a former foreign minister, Jorge Castaneda, at a conference hosted last month by the Cato Institute in Washington. “It makes absolutely no sense for us to put up 50,000 body bags to stop drugs from entering the United States.”
Scores of U.S. cities, counties and metropolitan areas are being divided again — splitting apart families, neighbors and, most important, voters with similar interests and needs — as states engage in the once-a-decade process of drawing new congressional districts. And mayors and local officials in many places are none too happy about it. Austin, a liberal island in Texas that has long been carved into multiple districts, would still be divided in three under a plan that was drawn up last week by a Texas court. In North Carolina, where Republicans drew maps that are expected to give them a big advantage, a lawsuit complained that one of the new districts seeps into pieces of 19 different counties and has so
many twists and turns that its perimeter is 1,319 miles long. Gerrymandering, of course, is nearly as old as the Republic and is practiced with relish by both parties. But for local officials concerned with governing, oddly shaped congressional districts that do not follow city or county lines can make life that much more complicated. And when urban and metropolitan areas are broken up and combined with rural areas, mayors say, fewer voices are left to vigorously push an urban or metropolitan agenda in Washington. When Utah gained a fourth congressional seat this year, local officials in Salt Lake County hoped that their booming metropolitan area would dominate at least one of the new districts. They sought what they called a donut holeshaped district, centered on the county. But their county
happens to have the highest concentration of Democratic voters in the heavily Republican state, so the Republicans who drew the maps opted for what they called pizza-sliceshaped districts that contained pieces of Salt Lake County in the center and broadened out. In the end, the map they passed split Salt Lake County into three of the state’s four districts, stretching some of them into far more conservative, rural corners of Utah. “We asked for a donut hole, we expected a pizza, and instead we got a plate of scrambled eggs,” said Peter Corroon, the Democratic mayor of Salt Lake County. Odd-looking districts sometimes make sense for reasons other than partisan politics, as well, including creating districts that give power to black or Hispanic voters to comply with the Voting Rights Act.