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Woolner, Ann ListingsIf you cannot find what you want on this page, then please use our search feature to search all our listings. Click on Title to view full description
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WASHED GOLD
Woolner, Ann
1994 45328 From the Publisher The Colombian drug lords called it "La Mina" - the Mine - and it did, indeed, hold hidden riches. Operating out of the jewelry districts of Los Angeles and New York, La Mina moved more than $1.2 billion in illegal drug profits through U.S. banks and businesses for the Medellin cartel, making it the biggest drug-money-laundering operation in history. In Washed in Gold, investigative reporter Ann Woolner tells the gripping story of how DEA investigators in Atlanta first persuaded a mid-level drug dealer to cooperate with them, and then followed him into a case so big that the DEA and other law enforcement agencies at first refused to believe it. Drawing on the firsthand-accounts of prosecutors, investigators, informants, and eyewitnesses, Washed in Gold takes us behind the scenes of the investigation that eventually shut down the cocaine cartel's most important financial operation. Woolner also leads us through the shadowy world of money laundering and, in fascinating detail, shows us exactly how it is done - from the back rooms of U.S. jewelry stores where money was piled high to American and Panamanian banks where money laundering flourished. She takes us into tense meetings with drug barons Pablo Escobar and Jorge Ochoa. And she shows us how the fierce competition among law enforcement agencies threatened the case: As the investigation grew, so did the tension among the FBI and DEA agents in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Miami. Capturing all the suspense of a high-level drug investigation, Washed in Gold is a fast-paced tale of greed, corruption, dedication - and luck. Publishers Weekly La Mina (``the mine"), a Los Angeles-based money-laundering operation for the Medellin drug cartel, used phony sales receipts of nonexistent jewelry and gold to launder hundreds of millions of dollars per year for Colombian cocaine lords. Its elaborate network, stretching from L.A. to Manhattan's diamond district to a Panamanian bank, was broken after DEA agents in Atlanta launched Operation Polar Cap in 1987, a three-year undercover probe coordinated with the FBI, IRS and U.S. Customs despite rancorous interagency turf battles. Woolner, a Georgia journalist, has done an amazing job of reconstructing the investigation, sharply etching the players--informants, agents, prosecutors, drug traffickers. Mild-mannered DEA intelligence analyst Gail Shelby cracked the case open with the help of DEA's computer database in Washington, D.C. This fast-paced account reads like a crime thriller and would make an exciting movie. Photos. (Aug.) Library Journal During a sting involving a phony money-laundering scheme, the Atlanta branch of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) began to hear about la Mina ("the Mine"), a large, efficient operation responsible for cleansing millions in drug-dirty money. The DEA gradually traced a web of banks, couriers, and front men who moved physical and electronic money around the world, mainly between Colombia and the United States. As other DEA branches as well as the FBI and the IRS became involved, the coordination of the investigation became more complex, and turf wars among the agencies grew intense. Eventually, the Mine was closed down, and a number of major players went to jail. Woolner gives this story its complicated due, following the international investigation in great detail. When she focuses on the Atlanta probe involving informant Ramon Costello, who ultimately ensnared two mid-level players, the story moves crisply. But at other times, the plot tends to disappear in a multitude of details and participants. As a result, the book's appeal will probably be limited. For larger true crime collections.-Ben Harrison, East Orange P.L., N.J. BookList Woolner expertly unravels the tangled history of Operation Polar Cap, the complex investigation of a highly successful money-laundering scheme. Dubbed "La Mina" by the notorious Medellin drug cartel, this laundering operation was responsible for legitimizing more than $1.2 billion in illegal profits in the 1980s. n Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group 0-671-74194-2 / 9780671741945
Hardcover As New Condition New York
Price:
25.99 USD
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