FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Good afternoon. It gives me great pleasure to be here today with Attorney General Janet Reno and Under Secretary Ray Kelly to announce the culmination of the largest and most comprehensive drug money laundering case in the history of U.S. law enforcement. In conjunction with other federal, state and local agencies, the U.S. Customs Service has successfully concluded Operation Casablanca, which for more than three years targeted the primary financial systems utilized by the Juarez and Cali cartels.

Indictments have been brought against three major Mexican financial institutions, two of which have branches in the United States. In addition, officials from 9 other major Mexican financial institutions were directly involved in laundering millions of dollars in drug money for the cartels. Customs expects the arrest of close to 200 individuals as part of this operation.

By infiltrating the highest levels of this international drug trafficking financial infrastructure, Customs was able to crack the elaborate financial schemes the drug traffickers developed to launder the tremendous volumes of cash acquired as proceeds from their deadly trade.

As of this morning, Customs has frozen many of the accounts utilized in this country by these traffickers. Based upon these actions, the traffickers will be unable to recover or transfer any funds we have identified as proceeds from their illegal activities.

Money laundering is the process that enables drug traffickers to convert illegal and unusable proceeds into usable funds. It is the lifeblood of organized crime.

But, it is also the "Achilles heel," because it gives us a way to attack the leaders of criminal organizations. While the drug kingpins and other bosses of organized crime may be able to separate themselves from street level criminal activity, they cannot separate themselves from the profits of that activity.

It has long been a priority of this Administration to close off the channels narcotraffickers use to move their ill-gotten gains into the economy, to put the traffickers themselves behind bars and to seize their assets.

This investigation demonstrates that priority. Today we have hurt the drug cartels where it hurts the most -- in their pocket books. I want to take a moment to praise the men and women of the Customs Service and the other law enforcement agencies who undertook the important and dangerous task of cracking this case. I would also like to thank the Federal Reserve for their crucial assistance throughout this lengthy investigation.

Thank you and it is my pleasure to introduce the Attorney General of the United States, Janet Reno.