FBI uncovers drug money-for-aircraft laundering scheme through Miami bank (McCain connection)

seafan

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Fri Feb-08-08 11:54 AM
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FBI uncovers drug money-for-aircraft laundering scheme through Miami bank (McCain connection)

.... AND, the Chairman of the Commerce Bank in Miami is Dennis Nixon.

Who is Dennis Nixon? He's the South Texas Co-chair of John McCain's campaign.

First, the main story:

FBI uncovers drug money-for-aircraft laundering scheme

By CURT ANDERSON
AP Legal Affairs Writer
Miami Herald

Mon, Feb. 04, 2008

MIAMI --
The FBI has uncovered a scheme in which drug profits were allegedly funneled from South American traffickers through Mexican money exchanges to a Miami bank, then used to buy airplanes intended to ferry more cocaine shipments around the world.

A Venezuelan man is jailed in Miami on money laundering charges and more arrests are possible, with a confidential witness providing the FBI with a treasure trove of information about the international arrangement, according to U.S. court documents.
Mexico's currency exchange organizations, or casa de cambios in Spanish, have emerged as a favored way for drug smugglers to launder their ill-gotten gains. But it's unusual for traffickers to buy airplanes on the legitimate U.S. market and then convert them into cocaine flights.

.....

According to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court, the scheme worked like this:

Drug traffickers deliver bulk cash to currency exchanges in Mexico City where there were "trusted contacts." For a fee, the exchanges wire transfer money to "buffer" bank accounts in the United States overseen by people who were also paid a fee. Then that money is used to buy airplanes for the cocaine trade.
"The principal reason for the buffer accounts was to disguise the true source of the monies," said FBI agent Michael Hoenigman in the affidavit.
Charged in the Miami case is 48-year-old Pedro Benavides Natera, a Venezuelan national accused of money laundering violations by setting up an account at Commerce Bank for drug profits and brokering deals for the aircraft.

.....

Despite his not guilty plea, the FBI affidavit says that Benavides admitted working for an unidentified drug trafficking organization based in Venezuela to purchase aircraft.
In September 2006, a twin-engine King Air E90 was purchased as part of the alleged scheme because it is "a favorite platform to transport cocaine from Venezuela to Guatemala or the Dominican Republic," the FBI affidavit says. That plane was bought legally from a Miami company and sent to Venezuela.

The traffickers also sought to purchase a twin-engine Cessna Conquest II using drug profits circulated through the Miami bank. These aircraft are used to fly cocaine from Venezuela to Africa, according to court documents.
The Benavides account at Commerce Bank was mostly inactive between January 2005 and May 2006, with an average balance of about $1,500. But suddenly its deposits from Mexican money exchanges shot up by more than $430,000 over the next several months and the money was tracked to the King Air purchase.

.....

More details via Cannonfire:

But what will make the piece noteworthy to Cannonfire readers are allegations that figures of interest in the illicit transactions "include backers of two of this year's Republican candidates for President."

Hopsicker writes:

The Republican connection begins with the statement in court filings that the money to purchase the planes was laundered through a bank which is almost invariably described as �fast-growing� in admiring business news articles.

The drug money was wired, usually from Mexico, to an account at Commerce Bank in Miami, whose Chairman, Dennis Nixon, is the South Texas Co-chair of John McCain�s campaign.

Nixon was also a Bush Pioneer and Ranger in George W. Bush�s two Presidential campaigns, raising $300,000 in one night for Bush�s re-election bid in Texas border town Laredo.

High-profile Texas businessman Dennis Nixon's bank is even� in one of the sales�involved on both ends. Money was wired from Mexico, first to an account at Commerce Bank in Miami, then on to International Bank of Commerce (IBC) in Oklahoma to complete the sale.

Dennis Nixon's International Bancshares of San Antonio owns both banks.

The second Republican connection is to has-been, oops, make that "also ran," Mr. 9/11 himself, Rudy Giuliani.

Describing the sale of a Grumman Albatross seaplane apparently sold to the Sinaloa Cartel, Hopsicker reports,

The seaplane, or "warbird," as aircraft broker sites call planes decommissioned from the military, was owned by Jay Koven, whose construction company built Rudy Giuliani's Emergency Command Center in Building 7 of the World Trade Center.

Very interesting.

Also, don't forget going on now is the FBI investigation of the National Republican Campaign Committee's shady finances.

(Let's see.... drug trafficking, money laundering, (nuclear weapons component trafficking) that involves people high in our government.... I believe Sibel Edmonds recently said a little something about that.)

John McCain should be questioned about his campaign's South Texas Co-chair's involvement in this money laundering scheme now under FBI investigation.