The Infiltrator: How Undercover Customs Agent - Played By Bryan Cranston In New Movie - Spent Two Years Partying In $1,000-A-Night Hotels, Driving A Rolls Convertible And Flying On A Private Jets And Then Trapped 85 Drug Lords At Staged Wedding

Over the weekend my wife and I watched director Michael Mann's film The Infiltrator on cable TV.

We enjoyed watched the crime film, which is based on a true case. I ordered the book online and I look forward to reading it.

In the film actor Bryan Cranston portrayed U.S. Customs Special Agent Robert Mazur (seen in the below photo), who went undercover and infiltrated the Colombian drug cartel and the world of crooked bankers.

Daniel Bates at the British newspaper The Daily Mail offers a piece on the true story behind the film.

As the drug lords relaxed by the pool sipping cocktails, they took turns to congratulate the friend who had invited them all to his wedding party.

Wealthy businessman Bob Musella worked the crowd of traffickers in 1988, who trusted him implicitly after he had laundered millions of their dollars from the heroin trade.

But the party was actually a rouse, the wedding was a fake and the 'couple' were both undercover US Customs agents who had spent the last two years duping them.

Even the 50 'family and friends' sipping drinks and making polite conversation were federal agents in disguise.

By the end of the night dozens of Colombian cartel bankers and high-ranking dealers had been arrested in one of the biggest takedowns in the history of US Customs.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3692397/How-undercover-customs-agent-played-Bryan-Cranston-new-movie-spent-two-years-partying-1-000-night-hotels-driving-Rolls-convertible-flying-private-jets-arranged-arrest-85-drug-lords-staged-wedding.html

FBI: Drug Kingpin Dethroned

The FBI web site offers a piece on their takedown of a drug kingpin in Miami.

For years, Alvaro Lopez Tardón, a Spanish national, was living the high life in Miami—fancy cars, seaside condos, designer jewelry, and expensive leather goods. But it all came crashing down in the summer of 2011 when he was named in a U.S. federal money laundering indictment as the head of an international narcotics trafficking enterprise. His illicit enterprise was believed responsible for distributing more than 7,500 kilos of South American cocaine in Spain and laundering more than $14 million in illegal drug proceeds in the United States.

Last fall, after being tried and convicted on numerous money laundering charges, Tardón was sentenced to an astonishing 150 years—exchanging his spacious South Beach penthouse for a small federal prison cell where he will spend the rest of his life. And in addition to the sentence, a $14 million money judgment and a $2 million fine were entered against him, and his assets are in the process of being forfeited. 

Tardón made his initial mark in the drug trade back in the 1990s, when he—along with his brother Artemio—worked for a ruthless drug trafficker in Spain. By the early 2000s, the Tardón brothers began a bloody feud with their boss and set about building their own criminal enterprise. They were ultimately successful—Alvardo directed the enterprise’s illegal activities primarily from Miami, where he visited often, and second-in-command Artemio ran things from Madrid.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2015/february/drug-kingpin-dethroned/drug-kingpin-dethroned?utm_campaign=email-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=fbi-top-stories&utm_content=400425 

FBI: Drug Cartel Money Laundering Takedown

The FBI web site offers an interesting piece on the takedown of a money laudering operation for a major drug cartel.

In a major takedown in Los Angeles on Wednesday, September 10, nearly 1,000 federal, state, and local law enforcement officers seized approximately $100 million in cash, arrested nine subjects, and searched dozen of businesses in the city’s downtown fashion district alleged to have laundered money for Mexican drug cartels.

The ongoing investigation—three indictments were unsealed Wednesday—is specifically aimed at the Sinaloa Cartel and its activities, including narcotics trafficking, hostage taking, and money laundering in Los Angeles and elsewhere in the U.S. and Mexico.

In one case, the cartel used a fashion district business to funnel ransom payments related to a kidnapped U.S. citizen who was held hostage and tortured by cartel members in Mexico.

“The victim, who worked as a distributor for the Sinaloa Cartel, was kidnapped after 100 kilograms of cocaine he was supposed to distribute were seized by U.S. law enforcement,” said Bill Lewis, assistant director in charge of our Los Angeles Field Office. The victim—who was ultimately released and safely returned to the U.S.—was kidnapped because of his drug debt.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/september/money-laundering-takedown 

FBI: Happy Valentine's Day, But Beware Of Online Dating Scams

The FBI released information on online dating scams yesterday:

Millions of Americans visit online dating websites every year hoping to find a companion or even a soulmate. But as Valentine’s Day gets closer, we want to warn you that criminals use these sites, too, looking to turn the lonely and vulnerable into fast money through a variety of scams.

These criminals—who also troll social media sites and chat rooms in search of romantic victims—usually claim to be Americans traveling or working abroad. In reality, they often live overseas. Their most common targets are women over 40 who are divorced, widowed, and/or disabled, but every age group and demographic is at risk.

Here’s how the scam usually works. You’re contacted online by someone who appears interested in you. He or she may have a profile you can read or a picture that is e-mailed to you. For weeks, even months, you may chat back and forth with one another, forming a connection. You may even be sent flowers or other gifts. But ultimately, it’s going to happen—your new-found “friend” is going to ask you for money.

So you send money...but rest assured the requests won’t stop there. There will be more hardships that only you can help alleviate with your financial gifts. He may also send you checks to cash since he’s out of the country and can’t cash them himself, or he may ask you to forward him a package.

So what really happened? You were targeted by criminals, probably based on personal information you uploaded on dating or social media sites. The pictures you were sent were most likely phony lifted from other websites. The profiles were fake as well, carefully crafted to match your interests.
In addition to losing your money to someone who had no intention of ever visiting you, you may also have unknowingly taken part in a money laundering scheme by cashing phony checks and sending the money overseas and by shipping stolen merchandise (the forwarded package).

In another recently reported dating extortion scam, victims usually met someone on an online dating site and then were asked to move the conversation to a particular social networking site, where the talk often turned intimate. Victims were later sent a link to a website where those conversations were posted, along with photos, their phone numbers, and claims that they were “cheaters.” In order to have that information removed, victims were told they could make a $99 payment—but there is no indication that the other side of the bargain was upheld.

While the FBI and other federal partners work some of these cases—in particular those with a large number of victims or large dollar losses and/or those involving organized criminal groups—many are investigated by local and state authorities.

We strongly recommend, however, that if you think you’ve been victimized by a dating scam or any other online scam, file a complaint with our Internet Crime Complaint Center (www.ic3.gov).
Before forwarding the complaints to the appropriate agencies, IC3 collates and analyzes the data—looking for common threads that could link complaints together and help identify the culprits. This helps keep everyone safe.

Here are some tips on how to avoid becoming a victim of an online dating scam.

Recognizing an Online Dating Scam Artist

Your online “date” may only be interested in your money if he or she:

• Presses you to leave the dating website you met through and to communicate using personal e-mail or instant messaging;
• Professes instant feelings of love;
• Sends you a photograph of himself or herself that looks like something from a glamour magazine;
• Claims to be from the U.S. and is traveling or working overseas;
• Makes plans to visit you but is then unable to do so because of a tragic event; or
• Asks for money for a variety of reasons (travel, medical emergencies, hotel bills, hospitals bills for child or other relative, visas or other official documents, losses from a financial setback or crime victimization).

One way to steer clear of these criminals all together is to stick to online dating websites with nationally known reputations.