A U.S. Army Sergeant pleads guilty to taking bribes, then trying to conceal them in a money laundering conspiracy and $32.8 million in U.S. currency is interdicted because of “Project Coronado”:
*A U.S. Department of Justice press release describes the conviction of Army Sergeant Ana C. Chavez for a public corruption scheme which had bribery and money laundering components. The Sergeant pleaded guilty on October 20, 2009 to taking $90,000 in bribe monies and trying to hide them in U.S. bank accounts through a money laundering conspiracy. I already wrote about these kinds of public corruption schemes at: “Army Major Arrested For Money Laundering” and “Second Army Major Guilty Of Bribery“.
*Another press release states that Project Coronado netted $32.8 million in suspected drug-related currency along with 11.7 tons of drugs. Project Coronado resulted in almost 1200 arrests and focused on La Familia Michoacán, which is reportedly the most violent of Mexico’s five drug cartels. On April 15, 2009 La Familia Michoacán was placed on U.S. Treasury’s Specially Designated Nationals List pursuant to the Kingpin Act. This designation freezes any La Familia assets subject to U.S. jurisdiction, as described by my February 11, 2009 “Asset Search News Roundup“. Finally multiple cities were involved in Project Coronado:
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Map Courtesy Of: U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
Copyright 2009 Fred L. Abrams