Feds Probe Links China to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel in Massive Laundering Scheme

The Investigation was Dubbed “Operation Front Runner” and Spanned from October 2019 to October 2023, according to NBC 24 charged in money laundering involving Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel Via ABC 7 (June 19, 2024): A five-year probe by U.S. officials uncovered a partnership between one of Mexico’s most notorious drug cartels and Chinese underground banking groups.

DEA operation exposes growing links between Sinaloa cartel and Chinese organized crime Via NBC News (June 18, 2024): Two dozen Los Angeles-based associates of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel were charged in a sophisticated scheme to launder more than $50 million in drug money through an underground banking system run by Chinese nationals in the United States, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. … The four-year investigation, dubbed “Operation Front Runner,” spanned from October 2019 to October 2023. It began with federal drug agents tracking suspects, some of them Chinese, as they collected bags of cash from cartel associates in and around the Los Angeles area. US announces major bust as efforts to crack down on Chinese money launderers working with drug cartels ratchet up Via CNN (June 18, 2024): US prosecutors on Tuesday touted a major breakthrough in a crackdown against Chinese money laundering networks they say are working with Mexican drug cartels, announcing charges against 24 people for allegedly taking part in a scheme to launder more than $50 million in drugs. It’s one of the biggest busts yet as federal agencies step up efforts to target the highest levels of Chinese money laundering rings that experts and officials tell CNN are the go-to partners for Mexico’s most dangerous drug cartels that traffic fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine into the US. Two “fugitives” named in the indictment unsealed in California have been arrested — one by the Chinese government and the other by the Mexican government, the Drug Enforcement Administration said. It’s a rare breakthrough for US law enforcement collaboration with China and Mexico, which have often bristled at US overtures to crack down on drug trafficking. The criminal network allegedly includes an array of Chinese, Mexican and American men who allegedly worked as couriers, money brokers and traffickers in an elaborate scheme to pick up big amounts of cash from the sale of cocaine and methamphetamine in the Los Angeles area and launder the money for the Sinaloa Cartel. … “In almost every investigation we have that involves the cartels and money laundering, the Chinese (groups) are involved,” the DEA official said in an interview conducted on the condition that the official not be named. … Fentanyl has been the driving factor in a surge of deadly drug overdoses in the US in the last decade. More than 74,000 people died after using synthetic opioids such as fentanyl in 2023, compared to about 5,500 in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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