FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Treasury Under Secretary forEnforcement Raymond W. Kelly has issued two Geographic Targeting Orders (GTOs) against money remitters in the New York Metropolitan area and Puerto Rico to stop drug money laundering to the Dominican Republic.

"The targeted money remittersin New York send more than $500 million to the Dominican Republiceach year, of which a significant amount is believed to be drugprofits," said Under Secretary Kelly. "The GTO hasproven to be a powerful tool, enabling us to stop the Cali cartelfrom wiring their illicit drug profits home. Now, we’regoing to use this tool to shut down the Dominican moneylaunderers."

The GTOs require certain moneyremitters to report to the Treasury information on cashremittances of $750 or more to the Dominican Republic. Beginningon September 2 for a 60-day period, the New York GTO applies to15 money remitters and their approximately 3,400 agents and thePuerto Rico GTO applies to five money remitters and their agents.

The demographics of the New YorkDominican community do not support the volume or increments offunds remitted to the Dominican Republic through the targetedmoney remitters. Investigations in Puerto Rico have alsouncovered widespread abuse of money remitters by Dominican-basednarcotics money launderers.

"Money laundering is the‘Achilles heel’ of drug traffickers," saidTreasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin. "Drug kingpins may beable to separate themselves from street-level activity, but theycannot separate themselves from the profits of thatactivity."

A GTO, issued under the BankSecrecy Act, a key anti-money laundering law, is used to imposestricter reporting and record keeping requirements on specifiedfinancial service providers in a certain geographical area for alimited time period.

"I commend the Department ofthe Treasury for taking this important action," saidAttorney General Janet Reno. "Issuance of this GTOrepresents another crucial step in our joint law enforcementefforts to identify and target drug cash proceeds by targetingfinancial sectors that are being misused by money launderingprofessionals."

The new GTOs were requested by theU.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New

York, the U.S. Attorney for theDistrict of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Attorney for the EasternDistrict of New York and the U.S. Attorney for the District ofNew Jersey along with senior law enforcement officials of theU.S. Customs Service and Internal Revenue Service. The

Financial Crimes EnforcementNetwork is responsible for administration of the new orders

which are designed to assist thelaw enforcement agencies affiliated with the New York based ElDorado Task Force and the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area(HIDTA) Task Force in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The Dominican Republic GTOs aresimilar to the order issued last year against New York moneyremitters and covering funds to Colombia. Still in effect, theColombian GTO has been renewed six times and is credited with thedramatic reduction of the transfer of narcotics proceeds throughmoney remitters in New York City to Colombia. By contrast, therehas been a 400% increase of drug money cash seizures as a resultof the New York GTO.

"We expect the Dominican GTOsto generate substantial enforcement activity against Dominicandrug money launderers and provide information to develop apermanent rule lowering the reporting threshold for all cashremittances outside the U.S. through money transmitters,"said Kelly.

On May 21 of this year, Treasuryproposed reporting requirements for all cash remittances of $750or more along with two related proposals. The second proposalwould require nationwide registration of "money servicesbusinesses," and the third would require suspicious activityreporting by money transmitters and issuers, sellers andredeemers of money orders and traveler’s checks. The commentperiod for all three proposals is currently scheduled to expireat the end of September.