LatinNews Daily - 19 June 2017

Chile: On 8 June at a meeting in Chile’s capital, Santiago, the US ambassador in Chile, Carol Perez, announced the transfer of some US$1.78m from the US Treasury Department’s Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture to the Chile’s state defence council (CDE). A press release by the US embassy in Chile notes that this transfer marks the first time that the US government has shared seized assets with the Chilean government. The transfer is in response to assistance and information provided to the US by the Chilean authorities in relation to a joint investigation carried out by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Chile’s investigative police (PDI) in 2004, targeting a money laundering operation run by Mauricio Mazza, a Chilean national, which allegedly brought US$60m into the US. Mazza was arrested by the US authorities in 2007 after boarding a Santiago-Los Angeles, California flight. With the assistance of the PDI, the CDE, and state and local law enforcement agencies in the New York City and Chicago metropolitan areas, the DEA and the US Internal Revenue Service, conducted an investigation that resulted in Mazza’s conviction on charges of money laundering in the US. In total, the joint investigation yielded over US$3.5m in seizures.

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