DEA
News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 27, 2002
DEA INVESTIGATION LINKS FORMER LEHMAN BROTHERS
ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVE WITH MEXICAN CARTEL
ACCUSED OF LAUNDERING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN NARCOTICS PROCEEDS
The Drug Enforcement Administration announced
the unsealing of two separate Indictments in Manhattan federal
court, both arising out of a DEA investigation into the Southeast
Cartel, one of Mexico's most powerful and violent narcotics organizations.
DEA Director Asa Hutchinson applauded the
joint efforts of the DEA, the Mexican Attorney General's Office
and the United States Attorney's Office in New York. "If
you cut off their flow of money, you cut off the traffickers'
lifeline," Hutchinson said. "The DEA will continue to
attack drug cartels where it hurts them the most - in their bank
accounts," Hutchinson said.
The narcotics indictment charges Jose Albino
Quintero Meraz and Jorge Manuel Torres Teyer as defendants added
to an indictment which already charged Alcides Ramon Magana, Gilberto
Salinas Doria, and Mario Ernesto Villanueva Madrid, the former
Governor of the Mexican State of Quintana Roo, with narcotics
conspiracy.
The Southeast Cartel conspired to import
hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States and distributed
it in metropolitan areas nationwide. Cocaine was shipped from
Columbia to various locations in Belize and Quintana Roo, Mexico,
by speedboat where they were subsequently transported to the United
States.
Villanueva Madrid, then Governor of Quintana
Roo, is alleged to have received payments for each shipment, approximately
30 million dollars in total, in exchange for his protection to
store and transport the Cartel's cocaine shipments, which also
included the use of state facilities owned by the Office of the
Governor. Formal extradition requests of Villanueva Madrid, Ramon
Magana, Salinas Doria, Quintero Meraz and Torres Teyer are expected
later this month.
The second indictment charges Consuelo Marquez,
a former Lehman Brothers account representative in New York, with
participating in the laundering of millions of dollars of Villanueva
Madrid's narcotics proceeds. Also charged in the money laundering
conspiracy are Madrid and his son, Luis Ernesto Villanueva Tenorio.
Since 1995 Madrid and Tenorio were alleged
to have deposited large amounts of narcotics proceeds into foreign
and U.S. bank and brokerage accounts. They then enlisted the assistance
of Marquez to conceal their ownership and avoid the detection
of the funds by law enforcement. Marquez utilized her positions
at Serfin Securities (a Mexican investment firm with offices in
New York) and later with Lehman Brothers to establish offshore
corporations structured to conceal the narcotic proceeds and their
ownership by Madrid and Tenorio. The seizure and forfeiture of
the accounts, estimated to total approximately 45 million dollars,
are being sought.
Felix Jimenez, Special Agent in Charge of
the DEA New York Field Division, stated, "The success of
this investigation exhibits the DEA's commitment to the pursuit
of facilitators who aid and conspire in an attempt to launder
narcotic trafficking proceeds utilizing U.S. financial institutions.
The close working relationship between Mexican and United States
law enforcement counterparts was instrumental in the dismantling
of the money laundering network operating in this major drug trafficking
organization."
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Contact: Special Agent Tom Hinojosa, DEA Headquarters, 202-307-7977
Special Agent Elizabeth Jordan, DEA New York,
212-337-2906
