Colombia arrests money launderer for Mexican drug cartel

[News_Editor]

Colombia arrests money launderer for Mexican drug cartel

2011-08-12 04:54:22 GMT+7 (ICT)

MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA (BNO NEWS) -- Colombian police on Tuesday arrested a woman who laundered money for the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico, local media reported on Thursday.

The suspect, Dolly Cifuentes, also known as "La Meno", was detained in a wealthy neighborhood of the municipality of Envigado near the city of Medellin in a joint operation between Colombian police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

A Court for the Southern District of Florida in the United States had previously issued an extradition order for Cifuentes on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering.

The brother of Cifuentes, Francisco Cifuentes, was previously the personal pilot of the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, who was once the head of the Medellín Cartel until he was killed in 1993.

After Francisco was also killed in 2007, Dolly and her brothers took over the illegal business and made an important alliance with Mexico's top drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the head of the Sinaloa drug cartel.

According to DEA information, Cifuentes managed 32 companies in Colombia and 17 abroad, including some in Panama, Mexico, Brazil and the United States. The companies were valued at around $200 million.

In addition, the Cifuentes family has smuggled nearly 30 tons of cocaine over the past three years, from Colombia to Mexico and on to the United States, according to DEA data.

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