US bank admits financing Mexican drug gangs

(Bloomberg): Just before sunset on April 10, 2006, a DC-9 jet landed at the international airport in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, 500 miles east of Mexico City. As soldiers on the ground approached the plane, the crew tried to shoo them away, saying there was a dangerous oil leak. So the troops grew suspicious and searched the jet. They found 128 black suitcases, packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100 million. The stash was supposed to have been delivered from Caracas to drug traffickers in Toluca. The smugglers had bought the DC-9 with laundered funds they transferred through two of the biggest banks in the US: Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp. 

Go to article