This week, InSight Crime investigates cartel money laundering on the US-Mexico border’s infamous black market peso exchange

Weekly InSight
March 18, 2022 ([link removed])

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This week, InSight Crime investigates cartel money laundering on the US-Mexico border’s infamous black market peso exchange, chronicling a chain of cash transactions that has allowed drug traffickers to launder tens of millions of dollars in illicit funds – a method popularized in the 1980s by Colombian groups including Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Cartel.

Elsewhere, Mexican authorities traded bullets with drug traffickers following the arrest of a notorious cartel leader near the US border, while a former presidential candidate was arrested on corruption charges. In Colombia, alleged drug trafficker “Memo Fantasma” – whose true identity was first revealed by InSight Crime – faces up to 40 years in prison on money laundering charges, and Uruguayan officials question how a ‘Ndrangheta mob boss slipped through their fingers.


** Featured
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** Mom-and-Pop Stores: Perfect Money Laundering Vehicles on US-Mexico Border ([link removed])
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The $215,520 began its journey south in the parking lot of a Meijer grocery store in Louisville, Kentucky, a 19-hour drive northeast from its eventual destination on the US-Mexico border.

A local drug dealer handed a courier wrinkled, mostly $20 bills bound with rubber bands, loosely wrapped in a plastic bag and stuffed in a backpack.

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** NewsAnalysis
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All News ([link removed]) >
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** Memo Fantasma Faces Up to 40 Years as Lawyer Also Investigated ([link removed])
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Alleged drug trafficker "Memo Fantasma," or "Will the Ghost," was formally charged with money laundering and criminal...

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** Northeast Cartel Leader's Arrest May Aid CJNG Expansion Along US-Mexico Border ([link removed])
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Mexican armed forces have captured the reported leader of the feared Northeast Cartel, but this arrest...

Honor Among Thieves - The Venezuela Manhunt for an Altruistic Mob Boss ([link removed])
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Endless Chemical Innovations Are Killing Thousands of Americans ([link removed])
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Colombia Airport Bust Highlights Risky Business for Female 'Drug Mules' ([link removed])
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Uruguay Asks Difficult Questions About Italian Mobster's Jailbreak ([link removed])
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Venezuela Judicial Woes Exacerbated as Prison Guards Extort Inmates ([link removed])


** Criminal Actors
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Profiles of some of the notable criminal personalities and groups that have marked this week.

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** El Koki ([link removed])
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Carlos Luis Revette, alias "El Koki," was one of Venezuela’s most wanted criminals and leader of the “megabanda" that...
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** CJNG ([link removed])
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The Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación - CJNG) is a criminal group that has evolved as...


** Media Mentions
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About Us ([link removed])
MARCH 11, 2022
VICE ([link removed])

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"The former [Honduras police director] had been a controversial figure from the beginning of his police career. In the early 2000s he created a “special task force” to fight violent gangs that was called “Los Magnificos,” in a nod to the Spanish title for the TV series “The A-Team,” according to InSight Crime ([link removed]) "
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** Impact
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What We do ([link removed])


** InSight Crime’s In-Depth Coverage of US-Mexico Border Crime Recognized
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The once-feared Zetas ([link removed]) have left a powerful imprint on Mexico’s underworld. Their ruthlessness and frequent acts of barbarism affected the way cartels fight each other, and authorities, to this day. On March 14, arguably the most prominent heir to the Zetas, Juan Gerardo Treviño Chávez, alias “El Huevo,” was arrested in Tamaulipas near the US border.

InSight Crime’s reporting ([link removed]) laid out how Treviño Chávez, leader of the Northeast Cartel and nephew to the Zetas founders, was one of the most powerful criminal figures along the US-Mexico border. Our article became a reference point for national and international media.

An article in Mexico’s El Economista ([link removed]) led with InSight Crime’s report ([link removed]) , questioning whether El Huevo’s downfall could aid the CJNG’s expansion along the Mexico-US border. El Debate ([link removed]) also cited InSight Crime’s story, highlighting the Northeast Cartel leader’s access to military-grade weapons and diverse criminal operations in the country’s northern borderlands.

The report was also picked up by the internationally-renowned Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project ([link removed]) (OCCRP), which highlighted the Northeast Cartel’s historic ties to the Zetas.
Read our latest coverage of the US-Mexico Border > ([link removed])


** Our Trending Topics
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