Feds take $100 million from cartel related businesses in California!

Federal officials announced that Los Angeles is now the nation's center for money laundering by international drug cartels, after a raid in downtown L.A. seized an estimated $100 million in cash and from bank accounts as part of an ongoing probe.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Some of this laundered money was from ransom payments to the Sinaloa drug cartel that kidnapped and tortured U.S. citizens.

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"Los Angeles has become the epicenter of narco-dollar money laundering with couriers regularly bringing duffel bags and suitcases full of cash to many businesses," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert E. Dugdale.

"California is the gateway to the rest of the United States," said California Attorney General Kamala Harris. "California is and always will be an attractive target for these kinds of activities because we have the largest population of any state in the United States. The seventh-largest economy in the world."

The international cartels use what is known as "trade-based money laundering" or "black market peso exchange," federal officials said.

The raid took place on September 10, when 1,000 officers went through a section of downtown L.A. known for its dense bazaar-like maze of shops. Initially, the officers seized $65 million, but by the next day that figure had grown to more than $100 million.

"We have targeted money-laundering activities in the fashion district based on a wealth of information that numerous businesses there are engaged in black market peso exchange schemes," Dugdale said.

Officials say that the majority of L.A.'s $18 billion garment district is legitimate and operates wholly within the law, but the crackdown clearly "portend a profoundly troubling trend," said Claude Arnold, a special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations unit within Los Angeles.

"The scope of this current case and its potential long-term impact are truly unprecedented," Arnold said.

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