Category Archives: Drug Cartels

Venezuelan Shipwreck Defines Drug Route

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Venezuela Investigative Unit

The sinking of a small boat heading from Venezuela to Curaçao and the disappearance of all the migrants aboard suggest that drug trafficking groups are also controlling human smuggling routes in the region.

On June 7, the group of 32 migrants, along with three crew members, set sail from Punta de Aguide in Venezuela’s Falcón state, on the Caribbean coast. On June 11, the boat was was declared missing, and a month later, the whereabouts of it and its passengers remain unknown.

The disappearance was reported as a shipwreck, an increasingly common disaster in the Caribbean as Venezuelans resort to desperate measures to flee the country. So far this year, three shipwrecks involving over 80 migrants have been reported.

After the latest shipwreck, family members reported that all the migrants had been wearing life-jackets. Yet only one body has been recovered to date — that of Elio Ramones, identified in Curaçao on June 12. To the surprise of authorities, his corpse seemed fresh, suggesting that the man had died several days after the supposed shipwreck.

Oswaldo Rodríguez León, Falcon’s security secretary who is coordinating the search for the missing, said that “it is not possible for no trace to be found of the 32 people who disappeared in that shipwreck; the bodies should be floating if they were drowned. We must investigate [the fact] that pirates could have taken them.”

On July 11, two men were arrested for recruiting the migrants in their hometown of Vela de Coro, along Venezuela’s northern coast.

But the arrests have brought authorities no closer to finding the disappeared.
In June, survivors of a previous shipwreck exposed a human trafficking route used to transport vulnerable women and children from Venezuela to Trinidad and Tobago, where they were sold into the sex trade.

After the latest shipwreck, residents in Falcón told InSight Crime that human smuggling is used as a front for drug shipments to the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, which are between 15 to 50 miles off the coast of Venezuela.

According to local sources, both cocaine and marijuana arrive overland and are stored in huts along the beaches of Falcón. It is then loaded onto small boats by night and shipped to neighboring islands under the guise of migrant transports, in quantities of up to 8,000 kilograms per day.

Although not officially corroborated, the locals’ claims are supported by recent large drug seizures on the Lara-Falcón highway, headed for the Falcón coast.

Mapa mostrando as ilhas ABC - Aruba, Bonaire e Curaçao e ...

Migrants are lured into the scheme by the low rates charged. The 32 missing people had reportedly paid $400 for the journey, compared to the standard rate of between $650 and $700.
In Vela de Coro, InSight Crime spoke to three families whose loved ones were aboard the shipwrecked boat and who are now missing. They said that following the disappearance they have begun their own investigations, including making inquiries with relatives on Curaçao. They claim that the missing boat was carrying a drug shipment to Curaçao and that the shipment did arrive, but 500 kilograms lighter than expected, giving rise to their belief that the migrants were kidnapped because the captain did not deliver the full drug shipment.

Full circle - Drugs trafficking in the Caribbean

The families have also begun searching hills near Punta de Aguide, where they believe the migrants were held before boarding the boats. Helicopters, however, are needed to comb over the mountainous territory largely controlled by drug traffickers.

Relatives of the missing migrants point to the inadequate official response as evidence of criminal complicity. Although the authorities were notified within a day of the disappearance, a search was not initiated until June 11, four days later.

Furthermore, authorities are alleged to have known of the voyage before the boat set sail. The family members who spoke with InSight Crime said that the migrants had intended to depart on June 6, but were intercepted by officials from the country’s criminal investigation unit (Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas, Penales y Criminalísticas – CICPC) who stole some of their belongings, including mobile phones, and took $1,000 from the captain. The migrants spent the night hiding in the woods before setting sail the following evening.

CICPC officials have also allegedly been involved in previous cases of predation on migrants, including the sex trafficking route to Trinidad and Tobago exposed in June.

This is not the first boatload of Venezuelan migrants to disappear. A boat vanished on May 16 in route to Trinidad and Tobago, and no corpses, wreckage or surviving passengers have been found. Hat tip to InSight for continued stellar investigations/reporting.

More ‘Narco-Subs’ Still Out There

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The clip, which appears to have been recorded via helmet cam, ends with the narco sub crew opening the hatch, and emerging with their hands in the air.

The footage is from just one of 14 similar drug interdictions that the Munro and two other Coast Guard cutters pulled off between May and July 2019 along the coasts of Mexico and Central and South America, according to a July 11 statement from the U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area.

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The NarcoSub: A Cutaway Illustration | Earthly Mission

InsightCrime: The operation, which took place on June 18, ended with the arrest of five smugglers and the seizure of the cocaine valued at $232 million.

The US Coast Guard has seen an uptick in these vessels recently. In a span of two months in 2017, the Coast Guard stopped seven “low-profile drug smuggling vessels,” according to a news release, seizing around 10,300 kilograms of cocaine worth more than $306 million.

Authorities in Colombia are also seeing an increase in this trafficking method.

In August of 2018, for example, Colombia’s navy intercepted two semi-submersible vessels, one of which was carrying more than two tons of drugs valued at $66 million, and the other which was carrying more than 1,700 kilograms of cocaine. By September of the same year, the Colombian navy had captured 14 semi-submersibles in the Pacific Ocean, more than three times the prior year, Business Insider reported.

Drug submarines largely depart from Colombia’s Pacific coast, where mangroves provide the perfect cover for submarine builders.

The increasing use of so-called narco-submarines to smuggle drugs between Colombia and the United States reflects two realities of the cocaine trade: coca production is at an all-time high in Colombia, and traffickers still see the high seas as one of the most effective ways to move drugs.

In 2018, coca cultivation in Colombia stood at 208,000 hectares, just a fraction less than the record 209,000 hectares seen in 2017. Such a bonanza has led traffickers to turn to all types of maritime transport.

The longtime smuggling method of concealing cocaine within cargo ships docking at US ports has been employed by traffickers recently, evidenced by massive drug seizures at ports in New York and Philadelphia.

Traffickers also clearly see semi-submersible vessels — first used by Colombian drug smugglers in the early 1990s — as an effective method of delivery. These vessels are largely employed to skirt improved radar technology and authorities’ use of high-speed boats.

Sitting below the waterline, semi-submersible vessels usually just have their exhaust pipes above the surface. As far back as 2009, such vessels could be constructed for as little as $50,000 and assembled in less than 90 days. Since then, they have only become faster, more sophisticated and likely cheaper to build.

Traffickers have also used fully submersible versions, which cost millions of dollars to build but have enough room for a few crew members and massive drug hauls.

The uptick in interdictions of semi-submersible vessels shows that the Coast Guard’s tripling of resources in the Pacific has been effective. Yet traffickers’ continued use of submarines likely indicates that a portion still manage to get through.

Even when stopped, these submarines can prove frustrating for authorities. They are built to be easily sunk, and their crews are difficult to prosecute, once the drug cargo and vessel sit at the bottom of the ocean.

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A 2008 U.S. military Southern Command report predicted that semi-submersible vessels would soon be able carry 330 tons north each year or close to half of all cocaine moving north.

There is some evidence this may already be the case. A 2010 United Nations report on The Globalization of Crime said that in 2008, 46 percent of all cocaine seized by Colombia in the Pacific was found on semi-submersibles. With the U.S. estimating that 69 percent of cocaine entering the country in 2007 left Colombia via the Pacific, semi-submersibles have in the last few years been responsible for a very sizeable proportion of the global cocaine trade. More here.

2008 documentary on drug subs.

 

How About Consulting FBI and SOCOM on Immigration

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Homeland Security and Homeland Defense cannot be divided, one relies on the other.

For starters, the FBI has had a long term operation in Central America. The FBI declares the gang operations for instance in El Salvador does affect public safety in America.

“Many of the gang members committing these homicides are 13-, 14-, and 15-year-olds,” he explained, “and every day there are new members coming in.”

“We aren’t facing a group of youths who are rebelling, but a very structured organization conducting criminal activities,” said Luis Martinez, El Salvador’s attorney general and the country’s highest ranking law enforcement officer. “They are using military-grade weapons, and they are using them against the police, military, and prosecutors.”

MS-13 and 18th Street gang members have gained a foothold in numerous U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Boston, Houston, Charlotte, Newark, and the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. They commit a variety of crimes—mainly trafficking drugs and extorting individuals and business owners—and they maintain strong ties to Central America.

The program is called Central American Law Enforcement Exchange (CALEE).

The success of the Central American Law Enforcement Exchange (CALEE) program hinges on bringing together U.S. and Central American law enforcement officers who share a common cause in the fight against violent transnational gangs. During the most recent CALEE, an important new partner was added to the group—prosecutors.

“We have seen that when prosecutors and investigators work together from the outset, cases tend to have more successful outcomes,” said Special Agent Grant Mann, who helped plan and administer CALEE 2015, the sixth session since the program began in 2009.

In the U.S, it is typical for FBI agents and prosecutors to sit down at the beginning of an investigation to discuss possible charges and investigative strategies. Historically, that collaborative process is less common in Central America—but thanks to programs such as CALEE, it is gaining acceptance.

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At Joint Task Force-Bravo which is located at Soto Cano Air Base, Hondura, the task force supports training engagements, counterdrug missions and humanitarian and disaster relief efforts in Central America.

Southern Command continues support for Guatemala’s counter trafficking efforts, human rights efforts and future U.S. military engagement activities. Guatemalan police unit and an interagency task force – both focused on countering illicit traffickers in the nation in cooperation with the U.S. military.

Additionally, in El Salvador we have partnerships that provides key support to regional counter illicit trafficking efforts. The U.S. military has a Cooperative Security Location hosted at Comalapa International Airport where U.S. aircraft fly missions to detect, monitor and track aircraft or vessels engaged in illicit drug trafficking in the region.

File photo of the Curacao/Aruba Cooperative Security Location. (U.S. Air Force photo)

The CSLs are not bases.  They are tenant activities on existing airfields whose purpose is to support CTOC missions (see more on SOUTHCOM’s role in Countering Transnational Criminal Organizations).

U.S. Southern Command oversees the operations from the CSLs.  The Key West, Fla.-based Joint Interagency Task Force South coordinates U.S. aircraft usage and operations.

From these locations, U.S. detection and monitoring aircraft fly missions to detect, monitor and track aircraft or vessels engaged in illicit drug trafficking. The unarmed aircraft offer unique surveillance capabilities that support and compliment the counter-drug efforts of partner nation law enforcement agencies. (Note: Host nation officials are responsible for decisions to interdict suspected traffickers within their borders/airspace, and U.S. law enforcement agencies lead interdiction efforts in international waters.)

U.S. military, Drug Enforcement Agency, U.S. Coast Guard and U.S Customs personnel operate from the CSLs to support the U.S. aircraft and to coordinate communications and information.   More here.

The House Armed Services Committee is chaired by Democrat Adam Smith. Back in May of 2019, Chairman Smith admitted several crisis conditions in Central America, the Southern border and Latin America. This included the flow of migrants and the flaws of the asylum laws. However, Congressman Adam Smith still blames the Trump White House for the cause of the crisis.

There continues to be particular focus and resource attention on Venezuela which does affect other neighboring countries. Southern Command leader Adm. Faller declares that Iran, China and Russia exacerbate the problems not only in Venezuela but also in Central America. This rogue foreign actor declaration was also validated by other national security experts in the hearing, noting Kathryn Wheelbarger, acting assistant defense secretary for international security affairs and Kenneth Rapuano, assistant secretary for homeland defense and global security.

Seizing el Chapo’s Money Likely Impossible

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Senator Ted Cruz and Sasse have co-sponsored legislation to seize the bank accounts of el Chapo Guzman to pay for the wall. While this is great in theory, some of that money should go to the victims as well.

el Chapo has been sentenced to live in prison plus 30 years and he is to forfeit his vast sums of money estimated to be as high as $12 billion. C’mon, this is likely not going to happen in total but there is a possibility to find perhaps some of it. Why?

Spain Is a Paradise (for the World's Most Powerful Drug ...

Guzman’s trial highlighted the methods Guzman Loera and his organization used to transport the cartel’s multi-ton shipments of narcotics into the United States, including fishing boats, submarines, carbon fiber airplanes, trains with secret compartments and transnational underground tunnels. Once the narcotics were in the United States, they were sold to wholesale distributors in New York, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, Arizona, Los Angeles and elsewhere. Guzman Loera then used various methods to launder billions of dollars of drug proceeds, including bulk cash smuggling from the United States to Mexico, U.S.-based insurance companies, reloadable debit cards and numerous shell companies, including a juice company and a fish flour company.

Guzman built a global empire and that included hiring expert lawyers, accountants and investors. The Federal Court of New York in 2008 proved that HSBC, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo and Bank of America were directly related to money laundering. The same court found that HSBC had laundered at least $1.1 billion from Sinaloa.

Drug cartel leaders may be uneducated in the traditional sense, but as the agents pursuing them know all too well, they are wily strategists and extremely sophisticated business people. Because their business depends on identifying and exploiting loopholes in the world’s legal and financial systems, they hire the brightest talent they can find to help them achieve their goals, and pay them extraordinarily well. Of the many money-laundering methods utilized by drug cartels, “structuring” – depositing amounts smaller than $10,000 to avoid Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) reporting regulations – is the most popular, even though it’s also the easiest form of money laundering to detect. Structuring is the most common reason Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) are filed by banks, but it’s also the most direct way to get money into a U.S. bank account. To push the odds in their favor, drug traffickers hire a veritable army of people to deposit small amounts of cash in banks all over the country, in cities large and small. Many get caught, but to the cartels, that’s simply the cost of doing business.

One area where law enforcement and finance can help each other in the future is in identifying and recognizing evolving trends. For example, Europe is a popular place for Mexican and Colombian drug traffickers to conduct business now because there is a lack of coordination and communication between countries in the European Union that criminals are exploiting.

Recently, federal officials received word that teenagers in a small country in Central Africa called Equatorial Guinea were suddenly driving Maseratis and other expensive cars down the country’s dirt roads. Further investigation revealed that both the Sinaloa drug cartel and Colombia’s Medellin cartel are now using this small country as a trafficking gateway to Europe.

Why? Because the predominant language in Equatorial Guinea isn’t French or Portuguese – it’s Spanish. More here.

Why are the Sinaloa Cartel the World's Most Powerful ...

Once illicit money gets into the U.S. financial system, it can go anywhere, internationally and such is the issue with the Iran nuclear deal where John Kerry allowed Iran access to the American banking system. What about the Patriot Act you ask? In some cases it was finessed due to payoffs. And how about corrupt governments? Yup that too.

 

Facebook Primed for Illicit Funds Use/Money Laundering

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America’s rivals are increasingly turning to bitcoin-style cryptocurrencies after their economies were brought to their knees thanks to crippling U.S. sanctions, experts have warned.

Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela are all investing in the technology in an attempt to counter American economic might – and an expert says these nations are forming alliances through the technology.

A form of digital money, cryptocurrency uses encryption to secure transactions and control the creation of new units. It uses cryptography, a form of secret coding originating from the Second World War, to process transactions securely. Its major appeal is it is untraceable.

U.S. sanctions work by placing bans on dealings and transactions with persons, nations and companies.

When ransomware is planted on state or local government systems and theft of data occurs, cities are forced to pay ransom to regain ownership and control.

Florida has paid more than $1.1 million in bitcoin to cybercriminals to recover encrypted files from two separate ransomware attacks—one against Riviera Beach and the other against Lake City.

Lake City, a city in northern Florida, agreed on Monday to pay hackers 42 Bitcoin (equivalent to $573,300 at the current value) to unlock phone and email systems following a ransomware attack that crippled its computer systems for two weeks.

For years, ransomware has been a particularly annoying cybersecurity threat. And despite reports that cybercriminals are shifting their efforts away from encrypting malware to cryptomining malware, ransomware infections continue at an alarming rate.

In one week in March 2018 alone, government-run targets in two of the biggest cities in America — Atlanta and Baltimore — were hit by ransomware. These attacks, which disrupted important city services, are far from isolated; similar ransomware attacks have targeted U.S. municipalities for years.

Stories about smaller cities falling victim to ransomware often go unreported by the national news … or anywhere at all. Nevertheless, municipalities and cities in all corners of the U.S. have seen ransomware infect their networks.

So, here comes the U.S. Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin with a major concern and warning for Facebook. What about this new Libra currency that has been launched?

(Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Monday that the Treasury department has serious concerns that Facebook Inc’s proposed LIBRA cryptocurrency could be misused for money laundering, adding to the growing regulatory skepticism of the company’s digital asset plans.

Secretary Mnuchin also said that the agency has warned Facebook that it must enact proper safeguards against illicit use such as money laundering.

“Treasury has been very clear to Facebook…and other providers of digital financial services that they must implement the same anti-money laundering safeguards in countering the financing of terrorism as traditional financial institutions,” Mnuchin said.

Project Libra: Facebook Launching One-World ‘GlobalCoin ...

Meanwhile:

Activists and Democratic lawmakers blasted the Federal Trade Commission’s $5 billion fine against Facebook as “chump change” and lambasted the agency’s settlement as toothless.

The settlement, which was reportedly voted along party lines, gaining support from the FTC’s three Republicans while being rejected by its two Democrats, is the beginning of the end for the agency’s probe of Facebook’s alleged mishandling of more than 87 million users’ private data during the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Although the fine sets a record in terms of the agency’s actions against Big Tech, a chorus of Democratic lawmakers, technologists and activists excoriated the FTC for not doing enough and not imposing a larger penalty.

“The sad reality is that this does not go nearly far enough. For a company that last year alone generated revenue nearly 11 times greater than the reported fine, the Federal Trade Commission should send a clear signal to Facebook and so many other tech companies that privacy is their ultimate responsibility,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., who is chairwoman of the consumer protection and commerce subcommittee in the House, said in a statement. “If these reports are true, then they failed.”

Will Facebook pay the fine using Libra? Well, when it comes to the Facebook blockchain debate, Facebook declares the Swiss government will regulate it all. Really? There is a Congressional hearing in the Senate by the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee where Libra is to be explained. Frankly, isn’t PayPal a form of cryptocurrency too? Anyway, this testimony found here is regarding Facebook’s Libra Project.

Read it here.