That money should have ended up in the hands of the Mercury News staff in Mexico, but it was lost or stolen during a test of eight common options for sending money across the border. An educated guess, postal officials said. The racket's growing strength around Guadalajara can be attributed in part to the city's rise as an international drug-trafficking center, and to collusion between thieves and corrupt police or postal insiders, Mexican police and postal authorities say. But mail theft wouldn't be so attractive if it weren't so easy to change bad money into good. Here, crooked merchants cash stolen U.S. money orders for pesos, thereby starting the hot money on its journey through the labyrinth of banks and clearinghouses.
Hawkers catcall their rates from doorways in a shrill singsong that lasts from morning till night.
The legitimate money-changers do a brisk business on this street. So do the organized-crime rings, which fence stolen money orders or pension checks and launder drug money. Some swindlers, they say, have ties to the most powerful politicians in Jalisco state. Trusting such a powerful name, the merchant didn't question that the money orders were made out to people from all across central-western Mexico, according to a lawyer involved in the case. The nephews have fled prosecution.