Agent Brian Clark still remembers a breakthrough case a decade ago.
His team at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) arrested a Chinese money launderer at a U.S. airport where the individual had a layover.
The person had coordinated money pickups and drop-offs for the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico. Mexican law enforcement identified him while he had lunch with a cartel leader in the country. The two of them discussed a then-recent DEA seizure of cash in New York.
The Chinese money launderer later cooperated with law enforcement and provided extensive information about how the laundering operation worked.
Between 2015 and 2016, Chinese money laundering networks began emerging, according to Clark, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Los Angeles Field Division. He said that, by 2019, the Chinese had dominated the laundering marketplace….
China Became World’s Largest Money Launderer–Here’s How the US Is Fighting Back
