ICE dismantles international drug trafficking and money laundering organization

Operation Rainmaker results in nearly three dozen convictions

ATLANTA, Ga. - A 57-year-old man from Bogota, Colombia, was sentenced in District Court today to 11 years and eight months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to launder the proceeds of drug trafficking. His sentencing was the result of a four-year investigation, dubbed Operation Rainmaker, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into the use of the black market peso exchange (BMPE) to launder large amounts of proceeds from the sale of illegal drugs sent to the United States by Colombian and Mexican drug traffickers.

The BMPE is a means by which U.S. dollars and other currencies are exchanged for Colombian pesos without incurring the taxes Colombia imposes on such transactions and without leaving a paper trail. Dollars are generally not accepted as currency in Colombia; therefore, narcotics traffickers who generate large amounts of U.S. currency through drug sales in the United States must convert those dollars to pesos to be able to spend their ill-gotten gains in Colombia.