Dozens accused in scheme to launder $100m in Mexican drug cartel profits

Associated Press in Chicago
Thursday 12 February 2015 22.29 GMT

Thirty-two people from the United States and Mexico are accused of running a multistate gold-for-cash scheme that laundered more than $100m in US profits for Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, a complaint unsealed this week in federal court in Chicago says.

The cartel associates used cash from narcotics sales to purchase scrap and fine gold – including from Chicago-area jewelers – then sent it to metal refineries in Florida and California; plants sometimes transferred payments for the gold directly to Mexico, the complaint says.

The 311-page complaint describes intense pressure lower-level schemers felt from higher-up cartel figures. One defendant, Carlos Parra-Pedroza, was allegedly captured on wiretap recordings telling an informant that cartel brass are uneducated but ruthless, as well as sticklers for precision.

“If I tell them we always pay them on Tuesday (but that this time) it’s not going to be until Wednesday, they’ll kill me,” Parra-Pedroza says, according to the complaint. “These guys (who) don’t even know the word ‘school’, only know how to shoot.” He also warns enforcers cut off the fingers of those who betray the cartel.

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