Heroin cash laundered through big banks

Press, 5 November 1984, Page 22

Heroin cash laundered through big banks

NZPA-Reuter New York The United States Government has charged 14 members of an alleged heroin-trafficking gang with laundering part of their illgotten gains through reputable brokerage houses in New York and leading banking institutions in Europe. Thirteen of those charged in a Federal indictment were among 38 named last April as members of a gang alleged to have brought a total of $1.65 billion worth of the drug into the United States. A Federal Attorney, Rudolf Giuliani, charged that the 14 accused laundered $28.6 million through

the Manhattan brokerage houses of E. F. Hutton and Merrill Lynch, and through the Swiss Bank Corporation, Credit Suisse Bellinzona in Geneva, and Banca Swizzera Italiana in Rome. In this way they were able to hide the proceeds of their alleged illicit drug trade between January, 1980, and September, 1982, he said. In the five years to April 1983, Mr Giuliani said, the ring had imported almost one ton of heroin, worth $1.65 billion, into the United States. The fourteenth man charged, Vito Roberto Palazzolo, who Mr Giuliani said played a key part in the money-laundering pro-

cess, was arrested recently in Switzerland on Italian charges of drug and currency violations, and violations of Italy’s anti-Mafia laws. Mr Giuliani said that Palazzolo set up trading accounts in Switzerland and purchased commodities futures contracts which were paid for with $20.6 million deposited at the two Manhattan brokerage houses. The other $8 million was laundered through the two Swiss Banks and the Italian bank. The charges allege that the 14 men conspired to launder and transfer funds illegally out-of the United States.