CPYRGH 50 Avnestethe rug Sting ; —|Money Laundering { » j By Sharon LaF raniere i Washington Post Staff Writer See ee EEA EEREan ederal drug enforcement offi- ials said yesterday they have dis- rudted the money-laundering wing of ithe leading Colombian cocaine cattel by arresting more than 150 profits. 2. tion officials said the three-year untlercover effort was the first in- sence of international cooperation on} a drug-money-laundering case ed first time authorities uncov- er¢d enough eyidence to link the ombian Cali. drug cartel to the Clifford, a DEA supervisor in San | Dikgo who coordinated the inves- dation, estimated that the cartel Ji employs dozens of other top money managers. But. a DEA sppkesman said, “we have taken a CORRECTIONS The date of a walk-through tour of the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s exhibit “Cavaliers rand Cardinals: Nineteenth {Century French Anecdotal 1 Paintings” with curator Eric \Zafran was incorrectly re- \ported in a Style article yes- ‘terday. It is Oct. 29 at 7 p.m, ' ~~ : i sn wrtme  E f ‘ An article Saturday about ‘California’s adoption of leg- islation outlawing - employ" iment discrimination on the t A . . ibasis of sexual orientation i failed to include New Jersey‘ {ilar laws. isrupted, DEA Says people in six countries and seizing — nearly $42 million in illegal drug. rug Enforcement : Administra- - tidn, according to the DEA. Tom jamong other states with sim- “| real bite out of their hide with these seven guys.” In Rome, a top-ranking Italian police official said the arrests would damage the alliance between the Colombian cartel and the Sicilian Mafia. “We have carried out many operations with the Americans but this is the biggest and most signif- icant,” said police official Achille ‘Serra. - After Attorney General William P. Barr authorized the investigation in September 1989, Clifford said, DEA agents established a phony Trans Americas Ventures Associ- ates. Undercover agents relied on informants to introduce-the “firm” to the Cali cartel as an efficient col- lector of drug profits. “Our whole purpose was to ar- range the collection. of. funds,” where in the world: We told them CPYRGHT investment consulting firm named said Clifford. “We .told them we. . had. the capability to collect any-.. Drug Enforcement Administration chief Robert C, Bonner, left, traces money laundering routes used by the Cali cartel. At the suggestion of cartel oper- atives, he said, undercover agents set up fake leather ‘goods busi- nesses, leasing warehouses in Houston) Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Chicago and New York. The cartel members shipped a token amount of merchandise but pretended to ex- port much more, That generated false paperwork they could then use to justify their Colombian bank de- posits of illegal drug profits, Clifford said. Clifford said it took a year to es- tablish the phony corporation, an- other year to win the trust of the cartel and a third to actually run the operation. “Very slowly, they came to trust us,” he said. Just before the arrests, under- cover agents arranged to receive cocaine shipments that were then . seized. Three hundred kilos of co- caifie is still “on its way on a boat,” he said. .. _...Windercover agents were able to we had representatives.-int other:- convince the seven alleged money brokers to leave Colombia for meet- - including one posing as an animal Si ASSOCIATED PRESS ings and parties in San Diego, Costa Rica and Italy. DEA Administrator Robert C. Bonner said that while some were arrested abroad, he ex- pects all seven to be tried in the United States. Bonner said 112 arrests’ took place in the United States, 29 in Italy and the rest in Canada, Eng- land, Spain and Costa Rica. Italian police officials said one defendant, who had 12 different identities, de- vised some of the cartel’s more in- genious methods of smuggling drugs into Europe. Italians identi- fied five bogus organizations that helped the cartel launder money, rights group, police said. About 70 of those arrested in the United States were “cell heads and cell members”—worker bees in the cartel, according to Clifford. The rest were more significant players he said. . special correspondent Clare Pedrick contributed to this report from Italy. Approved For Release 2001/03/07 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002300460001-6