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| Report: Inmate accounts frozen over alleged money laundering |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 10/18/2004 |
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Suspecting drug money may have been laundered through the state's toughest prison, officials at California Department of Corrections have frozen the inmate trust accounts of 14 Mexican Mafia members, a newspaper reported Sunday. The Sacramento Bee said the action followed an audit released in early September in which investigators found that two members of the Mexican Mafia housed in Pelican Bay State Prison's Security Housing Unit (SHU) each had more than $20,000 in their accounts. Two others had more than $10,000, and seven more had accounts ranging from $1,700 to $5,200. The SHU houses about 1,100 of the most dangerous inmates at the Crescent City-based prison. Officials believe the 14 got the money from drug gang members who often give a slice of their earnings to prison mobsters. "The evidence indicates that the money is definitely coming from a tainted source," said Pelican Bay spokesman Lt. Steve Perez, who added that FBI investigators had visited the prison last week. Established by the Department of Corrections for all 164,000 prisoners in the state, inmate trust accounts are set up for friends and relatives to deposit small amounts of cash for inmates to use to purchase items from the prison canteen. Most accounts contain no more than a few hundred dollars. Investigators said the Mexican Mafia inmates typically send the cash back out to friends and relatives in amounts ranging from a few hundred to several thousand dollars. Some experts say the alleged money laundering is just the latest example of the growing power of the Mexican Mafia, which many consider be the leading organized crime organization in California. |
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