Pubdate: Fri, 03 Dec 1999 Source: Miami Herald (FL) Copyright: 1999 The Miami Herald Contact: One Herald Plaza, Miami FL 33132-1693 Fax: (305) 376-8950 Website: http://www.herald.com/ Forum: http://krwebx.infi.net/webxmulti/cgi-bin/WebX?mherald Author: Andres Oppenheimer Knight Ridder Newspapers MONEY-LAUNDER CASE LEADS TO ARGENTINA MIAMI - The biggest drug-money-laundering case in U.S. history has led investigators to secretly search for late Mexican drug baron Amado Carrillo Fuentes' close associates and their hidden fortunes in an unexpected place: Argentina. Law-enforcement agents involved in the investigation told The Miami Herald last month that they had identified $25 million in suspected drug assets of Carrillo Fuentes' Juarez Cartel. They said much of the money had been sent to Argentina through U.S. banks since August 1997, and was used for the purchase of luxury apartments and ranches in Buenos Aires. In addition, the wives and children of top Juarez Cartel leaders - including a daughter of new cartel leader Juan "El Azul" Esparragoza - have been living in Argentina since the band suffered a major blow following Carrillo Fuentes' accidental death during cosmetic surgery in 1997, investigators say. The discovery is almost sure to draw new attention on Argentina as a possible refuge for international drug traffickers and their fortunes. It comes only two weeks after Argentines were shocked to learn that the widow and a son of Colombia's best-known drug baron, the late Pablo Escobar, are living in Argentina. Following leads from Operation Casablanca, the $157 million U.S. drug-money-laundering investigation unveiled last year, U.S. and Mexican investigators traced millions of suspected drug cartel deposits to an account in Citibank New York, held by a firm known as Mercado Abierto Casa de Cambio S.A. of Argentina. Mercado Abierto is owned by Aldo Ducler, an economist and former government official who in recent months has been a close supporter of Eduardo Duhalde and Palito Ortega, the defeated ruling party candidates for president and vice president, respectively, in Argentina's Oct. 24 election. Argentine police seized Mercado Abierto yesterday, after the daily La Nacion disclosed part of the investigation in its morning edition. At least 17 of the suspected drug money transfers to Mercado Abierto were made "for the benefit of" Nicolas Di Tullio, according to Operation Casablanca documents made available to The Herald. Investigators identified Di Tullio as the son of the former head of an important Argentine real-estate company. Most of the money originated in California banks, including Bank of America, and were transferred to the Citibank account in New York, investigators say. In New York, Citigroup spokeswoman Leah Johnson said the reports about Citibank's transactions "apparently pertain to the standard practice of bank-to-bank transfers at the request of reputable U.S. banks." The investigation was stepped up after top officials of Mexico's Interpol bureau visited Argentina and made an official criminal complaint requesting the seizure of drug-suspected properties and accounts, as well as the arrest of suspected money launderers. "It's an investigation which we had started a long time ago, ever since we first learned about the presence of Carrillo Fuentes in Argentina in 1997," Mexico's Interpol chief Juan Miguel Ponce said in a telephone interview yesterday. "We knew that, before his death, he had set up cells in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil." Carrillo Fuentes, also known as The Lord of the Skies, was also a frequent traveler to Cuba, and had a common-law wife and a daughter there, other senior Mexican officials say. A U.S. Customs delegation is in Argentina this week as part of the investigation, and is looking into suspected Juarez Cartel ranches in rural areas of Buenos Aires province, officials said. - --- MAP posted-by: allan wilkinson