United States

Gas chromatograph–mass spectrometer pictured in a GAO report
Investigations and enforcementNetwork studyProcurementUnited States

The Shipment and the Missing Name

Investigators can follow fentanyl from a chemical supplier to a payment and a tested shipment.…

A collection of U.S. dollar banknotes
Money launderingMoving the moneyNetwork studyUnited States

What Happened to the Other Dollars?

A $200 million monthly estimate became one of the most durable numbers in accounts of…

A collection of U.S. dollar banknotes
BrokerageMexicoMoney launderingNetwork studyUnited States

The New Competitors: Chinese Money Networks and the Lebanese Brokers

In January 2021, an American operative named Edgar Joel Martinez-Reyes slipped across the southern border…

E. Barrett Prettyman federal courthouse in Washington
Case fileProfileTrade and transportUnited States

The Trader Who Could Not Escape His Name

The proposed residence was designed to resemble a private penitentiary: electronic sensors wired to every exterior doorway, closed-circuit cameras streaming…

Adel al-Jubeir in October 2018
Case fileInvestigations and enforcementMexicoUnited States

The Cartel Hitman Who Wasn’t There

In a Mexican hotel room in July 2011, Manssor Arbabsiar thought he was negotiating the lethal apex of a geopolitical…

Official 2025 portrait of Derek Maltz.
Investigations and enforcementNetwork studyUnited States

The Case Files Washington Had to Join

When Jeff Sessions gathered a new team of prosecutors in Washington in January 2018, the file folders on his desk…

General cargo being handled beside a ship and trucks at the port of Cotonou.
BrokerageCase fileEuropeInvestigations and enforcementLebanon and SyriaMoney launderingMoving the moneyProcurementUnited StatesWest Africa

The Fee for Getting It Through

An undercover DEA operation tested Lebanese lawyer Joseph Asmar and facilitator Iman Kobeissi with cash presented as cocaine proceeds, from…