Colombia

A collection of U.S. dollar banknotes
BrokerageColombiaCurrency exchangeMoney launderingMoving the money

Pesos, Dollars and Hawala: Where the Black Market Peso Exchange Meets Beirut

A textile shipment could be perfectly real while its payment belonged to another business entirely.…

General cargo being handled beside a ship and trucks at the port of Cotonou.
BrokerageColombiaMexicoMoney launderingNetwork study

The Service Economy: Why a Cartel Would Hire a Lebanese Broker

One to five days: that was the swift settlement timetable American prosecutors documented when they…

Maicao, La Guajira
BrokerageColombiaInvestigations and enforcementPlaces

Maicao: The Town Behind Treasury’s Map

When reporters arrived in the dusty border town of Maicao in July 2012, searching for…

Close view of pieces of charcoal produced in Namibia
ColombiaLebanon and SyriaMoney launderingProfileTrade and transport

The Charcoal Trader’s Other Business

When Zoom Zoom Motors S.A.R.L. filed its founding paperwork in Lebanon around 2014, the corporate registry described a conventional business:…

Official portrait of Treasury official Marshall Billingslea.
ColombiaCurrency exchangeEuropeInvestigations and enforcementLebanon and SyriaMoney launderingMoving the moneyProfileVenezuela

The Half-Hour Before the Sanctions

In 2019 the US Treasury sanctioned Kassem Chams and his licensed exchange house in Chtaura, Lebanon, alleging drug-proceeds laundering and…

El Dorado airport terminal in Bogotá
BrokerageCase fileColombiaInvestigations and enforcementLebanon and SyriaMoney launderingMoving the moneyPanamaUnited StatesVenezuela

The Ticket Out of Bogotá

Operation Titan grew from a Miami laundering inquiry into a Colombian–US case against Chekri Mahmoud Harb, a Bogotá broker accused…

General cargo being handled beside a ship and trucks at the port of Cotonou.
BrokerageColombiaCurrency exchangeInvestigations and enforcementLebanon and SyriaMexicoMoney launderingMoving the moneyPanamaProfileUnited StatesVenezuelaWest Africa

Ayman Joumaa’s Business Between the Cartels

Ayman Joumaa was designated by the US Treasury in 2011 and indicted the same year on charges of coordinating cocaine…