10 April 2006, a DC-9 landed at Ciudad del Carmen in the Gulf of Mexico. Mexican soldiers were waiting to intercept found 128 boxes containing 5.7 tons of cocaine valued at $ 100 million. But they also discovered something else, and most importantly: the documentation of the purchase of aircraft by the Sinaloa cartel. During a 22-month investigation by agents of the U.S. drug agency -The DEA and other agencies, it was discovered that drug traffickers had bought the plane with money that had been laundered through one of the largest banks USA: Wachovia, now part of giant Wells Fargo. There were thousands of millions of dollars in wire transfers, travelers checks and remittances to these accounts through Mexican exchange houses. Immediately Wachovia was investigated for failure to implement an effective program against money laundering. The charges were filed against the bank, but never came to court. Wachovia paid to federal authorities $ 110 million as a penalty for allowing transactions that showed they were linked to drug trafficking. But what was even more outrageous, and most importantly, the bank was sanctioned for failing to implement anti-money laundering controls the transfer U.S. $ 378,400 million, a sum equivalent to one third of the Mexican GDP in dollar bills of exchange houses in the country with which it did business. "The flagrant violation by Wachovia of our banking laws gave the cocaine cartels free rein to fund their operations," said U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Sloman. However, the total fine was less than 2% of the profit of U.S. $ 12,300 million in the bank in 2009. But the case was only the tip of the iceberg and revealed the role of the banking sector "legal" in the laundering of hundreds of billions of dollars. In the middle of the 2008 banking crisis, Antonio Maria Costa, the then head Office of Drugs and Crime UN said it had information suggesting that the profits of drug dealers were "the only liquid investment capital" available to banks that were on the verge of collapse. "There were indications that some banks were rescued that way," he added. The Guardian obtained documents that had previously been submitted to financial regulators. From there came the alarm came from London ignored measure of one of the complainants, a man who in a series of interviews revealed the story of how Wachovia was at the center of one of the largest money laundering operations in the world. Martin Woods joined to the London office of Wachovia in February 2005 as an official anti-money laundering. He was selected for its expertise in KYC-abbreviation for "know your customer" - or in how to identify the dirty money. "It is a fundamental tool in the fight against money laundering, tax evasion and the financing of counterterrorism. Who are the customers? Does the documentation is appropriate? "He said. When analyzed for Wachovia, the first thing he noticed was a deficiency Woods of KYC information. By August 2006, had identified a number of suspicious transactions linked to exchange houses in Mexico. Included deposits in euro traveler's checks. They had sequential numbers and deposits was higher than I might need a simple flyer. But the KYC data was inadequate and the signatures seemed doubtful. In June 2005, the DEA, the IRS and prosecutors in South Florida began investigating the transfers of Mexico to the U.S. It traced the money. "Through the exchange houses," reads the court-folio "people in Mexico can use foreign currency and transfer the value of that currency into U.S. bank accounts to make purchases in the U.S. or other countries. " On March 16, 2010, Douglas Edwards, vice-Wachovia Bank signed a 25-page agreement admitting the bank's role as set by prosecutors. The document indicates that Wachovia was three services to 22 exchange houses in Mexico: transfers, a "service cash flow" and a "bag deposit service" to accept "deposits drawn on U.S. banks, as such checks and traveler's checks, "as Woods was detected. The document provides a fascinating analysis of how money laundering works of the narcos. Details how researchers "found clear evidence of red flags for money laundering." "What happened at Wachovia was symptomatic of the lack of implementation by all the regulatory system of a type appropriate control, all of which could have avoided not only money laundering but the global crisis, "says Woods. ClarÃn, 06/04/1911
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