Money never comes for free near the U.S.-Mexico border. Members of a local six member task force are hustling out the violence done by transnational criminal organizations that smuggle weapons and drugs by breaking up their financing structure.
Chula Vista's police department, that has a newly hired police sergeant, and an agent, on the task force called Operation Northern Eagle, or ONE, will pay the District Attorney's Office for the investigative work done by a District Attorney investigator to find the persons operating in the financial infrastructure so the task force can seize the assets the criminal organizations depend on to operate in the border area 200 miles north and south of the U.S.-Mexico border. The investigator gets a share of the money used by the task force funded by a 2.9 million dollar grant from the Southwest Border Anti-Smuggling Alliance that gives local, state, and federal enforcement officers an opportunity to work together during a three year project period that started on July 1 in 2012 and will end on June 30 in 2015, or later if the task fore gets additional funding.
County supervisors recently approved the payment to the federal authorities that will cover costs back to the project start last year. Chula Vista guaranteed its task force member's investigative operations by adding the funding to the fiscal year 2013 budget.
The organizations that have set up shop near the border hold back market growth by corrupting the financial transactions done in the border communities. Lowering the violence done by the organizaitons funded by money launderers fits in the county's plan to San Diego make communities safe.
Dismantled Mexican funding organizations can collapse, and go out of existence. The task force was formed to help the four state alliance formed after investigators found criminal organizations taking Western Union money transactions lower the use of money laundering to finance criminal activities. Once officers shut down a money laundering operation, smugglers can be forced to move.
This article is the latest developing news article for Open Commitments on every second Wednesday. On the other Wednesdays the articles are telling commentaries for Post Edition.
To read earlier articles, read
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Horton Plaza improvement project set to go to bid
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