Three Tijuana-based businesses on U.S. Treasury list of suspected money launderers

By Anna Cearley

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

2:16 p.m. December 12, 2007

Three Tijuana-based money-service businesses and a restaurant corporation are among a group of 42 businesses and individuals that the U.S. Treasury Department suspects of laundering money for drug-trafficking groups.

The restaurant business, Hacienda Cien Años, appears to refer to a now-closed restaurant that once had ties to Cien Años, an upscale Tijuana restaurant popular with tourists and locals.

Olga Ojeda, attorney for the original Cien Años, said the Hacienda Cien Años started when a member of the family that operates the original Cien Años formed a business association with Blanca Armida Aguirre Sanchez, who is named on the Treasury Department's list.

The relationship lasted one or two years, she said. It was dissolved in 2003, according to state business records.

Woman's businesses, assets blocked

She's suspected in money laundering
By Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
December 13, 2007

TIJUANA – Authorities have blocked the U.S. assets of a Tijuana woman and those of businesses she runs or owns that are suspected of being part of an extensive money-laundering operation for a Mexican drug group.

In all, 42 people and companies in Mexico are alleged to be part of the financial network of Blanca Margarita Cazares Salazar, 53, of Sinaloa, Mexico. Their names appeared on a list that the U.S. Treasury Department published yesterday.

U.S. citizens and businesses are prohibited from doing business with anyone whose name is on the list.

U.S. Treasury Department List