Operation Greenback was a

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

-based, multi-agency

U.S. government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

task force targeting

money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

connected to

drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via insuffla ...

."Operation Greenback" in Ron Chepesiuk, ''The War on Drugs: An International Encyclopedia'' (ABC-CLIO, 1999), p. 173.

Formation and composition

The operation was established in response to the explosive growth of money laundering in

South Florida South Florida is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the other two are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of th ...

following the increase in drug trafficking in the region.Interview: Mike McDonald
''Drug Wars'',

Frontline Front line refers to the forward-most forces on a battlefield. Front line, front lines or variants may also refer to: Books and publications * ''Front Lines'' (novel), young adult historical novel by American author Michael Grant * ''Frontlines ...

, PBS. A 1979 cash-flow study by the

Federal Reserve Bank A Federal Reserve Bank is a regional bank of the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States. There are twelve in total, one for each of the twelve Federal Reserve Districts that were created by the Federal Reserve A ...

found that Florida had a $5.5 billion cash surplus at a time when the rest of the country had a cash deficit. The interagency task force was formed in late 1979 at the suggestion of the Treasury Department and launched investigations in 1980.Robert E. Grosse, ''Drugs and Money: Laundering Latin America's Cocaine Dollars'' (Praeger, 2001), p. 57. The task force was the first interagency group set up to combat money laundering. It was composed of investigators from the

Justice Department A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

(Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section) and the Treasury Department (

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...

(IRS) and

U.S. Customs Service The United States Customs Service was the very first federal law enforcement agency of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government. Established on July 31, 1789, it collected import tariffs, performed other selected borde ...

). The task force cooperated with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida and the

Drug Enforcement Administration The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within th ...

(DEA).

Investigations and prosecutions

Investigators reviewed

currency transaction report A currency transaction report (CTR) is a report that U.S. financial institutions are required to file with FinCEN for each deposit, withdrawal, exchange of currency, or other payment or transfer, by, through, or to the financial institution which i ...

s (CTRs) and currency and monetary instrument reports (CMIRs) to identify violations of the

Bank Secrecy Act The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 (BSA), also known as the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act, is a U.S. law requiring financial institutions in the United States to assist U.S. government agencies in detecting and preventing money laund ...

. The operation resulted in a large number of federal seizures of cash bound for

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

drug cartel A drug cartel is any criminal organization with the intention of supplying drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. The term was applied when the ...

s. For example, in November 1980, agents seized $1.6 million in suspected drug profits and two aircraft after intercepting alleged traffickers at the

Opa-Locka Airport Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport (formerly Opa-locka Airport and Opa-locka Executive Airport until 2014) is a joint civil-military airport located in Miami-Dade County, Florida north of downtown Miami. Part of the airport is in the city limit ...

. In October 1982, investigations raided a

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...

production laboratory in Miami, recovering $3 million and 40 pounds of cocaine, and arresting 11 people.

Howard Kurtz Howard Alan Kurtz (; born August 1, 1953) is an American journalist and author best known for his coverage of the media. Kurtz is the host of Fox News's ''Media Buzz'' program, the successor to ''Fox News Watch''. He is the former media writer fo ...

Cocaine-Production Laboratory Seized by U.S. Agents in Miami
''Washington Post'' (October 23, 1982). In 1983, the operation expanded to

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

.Jesus Davila
Federal agents press investigation of money-laundering scam
United Press International (June 8, 1985). Major figures prosecuted as a result of Operation Greenback included Hernan Botero Moreno, Isaac Kattan Kassin, and Alberto Barrera Duran. Kattan, a naturalized Colombian citizen based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, was an associate of drug barons

Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (born January 8, 1946), commonly referred to by his aliases ''El Jefe de Jefes'' ("The Boss of Bosses") and ''El Padrino'' ("The Godfather"), is a convicted Mexican drug lord Kingpin. He was one of the founders of th ...

and

Juan Matta-Ballesteros ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, t ...

. Kattan was arrested in 1981 with 20 kilograms of cocaine in his car.Jo Thomas
Suspect Held on $10 Million Bond in a Crackdown on Drugs in Miami
''New York Times'' (February 28, 1981). Searches of Kattan's home and four hotel rooms uncovered $40 million in cash.Cheryl Hall
Meet the Dallas attorney who wrote the book on money laundering
''Dallas Morning News'' (August 10, 2013). Kattan was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison.Julie Marie Bunck & Michael Ross Fowler, ''Bribes, Bullets, and Intimidation: Drug Trafficking and the Law in Central America'' (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012), p. 276. Barrera (nicknamed "Papa Smurf") pioneered the technique of smurfing, evading detection of suspicious deposits of cash by buying

money order A money order is a directive to pay a pre-specified amount of money from prepaid funds, making it a more trusted method of payment than a cheque. History The money order system was established by a private firm in Great Britain in 1792 and was ...

s and

cashier's check A cashier's check (or cashier's cheque, cashier's order) is a check guaranteed by a bank, drawn on the bank's own funds and signed by a cashier. Cashier's checks are treated as guaranteed funds because the bank, rather than the purchaser, is respo ...

s in amounts below $10,000, thus avoiding CTR reporting requirements.Robert E. Grosse, ''Drugs and Money: Laundering Latin America's Cocaine Dollars'' (Praeger, 2001), pp. 72-73. The scheme was dismantled in 1984 after Barrera and 13 others were charged with

conspiracy to defraud the United States Conspiracy against the United States, or conspiracy to defraud the United States,§ 92318 U.S.C. § 371—Conspiracy to Defraud the United States U.S. Department of Justice's ''United States Attorneys' Manual''. is a federal offense in the United ...

.U.S. Arrests 6 Suspects in Florida in Nationwide Money Laundering
''New York Times'' (June 5, 1984). About half of those charged, including Barrera, fled to Colombia, while others were arrested and sentenced to U.S. prison terms. The Great American Bank of Dade County was also indicted in 1982 as a result of the investigation. The bank, which had laundered $60 million for Kattan in 1981 alone, entered a guilty plea in 1984 in connection for laundering a total of $94 million.Bank pleads guilty in $94 million money laundering scheme
United Press International (April 17, 1984). The operation was generally successful at leading to prosecutions, and fragmented the drug trade. By the end of October 1982, the operation led to 125 arrests. The operation also demonstrated a number of gaps in the law, which led to the enactment of the

Money Laundering Control Act The Money Laundering Control Act of 1986 ( Public Law 99-570) is a United States Act of Congress that made money laundering a federal crime. It was passed in 1986. It consists of two sections, and . It for the first time in the United States c ...

in 1986, which (among other things) made smurfing a specific federal crime.

References

Further reading *{{cite book, last1=Gugliotta , first1=Guy , last2=Leen , first2=Jeff , year=1989 , title=Kings of Cocaine: Inside the Medellín Cartel - An Astonishing True Story of Murder, Money and International Corruption , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y3dGino_7DoC , location=New York , publisher=Simon and Schuster, isbn=978-0-6716-4957-9 Money laundering Law enforcement operations in the United States United States Department of the Treasury 1979 in the United States Task forces Greenback