The City of Angels is now the US’s “epicenter” for money laundering by international drug cartels.
Federal officials made such an announcement this week after they raided downtown businesses and seized an estimated $100 million in cash and from bank accounts around the world that were part of forfeiture actions in the ongoing probe, the CNN wrote.
Some of the laundered money included ransom payments to the Sinaloa drug cartel that allegedly kidnapped and tortured a US citizen at a ranch in Mexico.
“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,” Assistant US Attorney Robert E. Dugdale said.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris also was blunt.
“California is the gateway to the rest of the United States,” Harris said. “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.”
