Mexican Drug Cartels Laundering Money Thru Horse Racing

[Spiketoo]

Followed this story while spending a few days in Santa Fe - front page news there (course their fishwrap is like 10 pages total).

This is exactly what CA racing needs. All that money pouring in and stocking 8-10 horses a race. Money is money - theres isnt a whole lot different than where Mr CashMaul gets his (you know, once you get past the Class A felonies).

Jeester, can you contact some of your subpoena associates and see if maybe you can take a meeting with these guys? They must be looking for new avenues now for their investments.

[White Hat]

The 3 horses that qualified for the million dollar race are gone and will not race, Los Al will replace them with qualifiers 11-13. I did find out that the the horses that were taken out of the racetrack were the ones believed to be worth the most, the others left with their trainers. The horses cannot race or leave the backstretch leaving their trainers to foot the feed bill for now since there isn't any money coming in from the south

[Clockerbob]

No well paid steward or racing commission member sd a word about the cartel.

This became a hard-accepted fact for me. During my twenty-fifth year working as a public information server, I stood for the public. I knew better. But that view from the press box, looking down at row after row of vacant seats raceday after raceday, can eventually get to you. A senior member of the press box remarked to me about the empty seats, "It is not our job to fill the seats. That’s management and marketing’s job. Race track promoters should offer 12 ounce cups of draft beer on dollar day instead of one six-ounce cup. Listen to me. Our job is to keep quiet about racial discrimination, living conditions backside, organized crime, bookmakers, performance enhancing drugs, missed workouts and jockeys packing electrical prods. You’ll never catch heat for misdirecting the public. You will get lit up, though, for providing the public information that crosses the racing mafia flow of cash."
http://www.clockerbob.com/chapter4.html

[Joel]

FINALLY the 3 Burke DQ's make a small blurb, with ruling links, on the Los Al website.

"conduct detrimental to horse racing"..

http://losalamitos.com/News.aspx?id=1298

[MaryS]

US government sells Zetas horses for $8.8 million

(AFP) – 5 hours ago

CHIC AGO — More than 300 race horses allegedly owned by a top leader of Mexico's feared Zetas drug gang have been sold for $8.8 million after being seized in a June raid, US officials said Monday.

US officials allege that Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, who is believed to be in Mexico operating as the cartel's second in command, and his brothers hid millions of dollars of drug proceeds in a horse racing and breeding operation.

One of the brothers, Jose Trevino Morales, and his wife Zulema Trevino were among seven people arrested in a massive raid which also saw the seizure of the prize-winning horses.

The quarter horse racing front appears to be more than simply a shell corporation. Several of the horses have won major races, including A Dash of Sweet Heat, which sold for $1 million.

Nor were the accused making major efforts to stay under the radar -- some of the horses ran with names like Number One Cartel and Corona Coronita Cartel.

The US government still retains possession of 45 quarter horses which it plans to auction at a later date, including "Mr. Piloto" which won $1 million at Ruidoso Downs on Labor Day 2010.

"Like all criminal organizations, the Zetas are motivated by money," US attorney Robert Pitman said in a statement. "Identifying and taking their assets is an important way to lay an axe to the root of the tree."

"This investigation has helped to disrupt this alleged international drug cartel's US-based money laundering operations and demonstrates the lengths that US law enforcement will go to deprive criminal organizations of the fruits of their illegal activities," said Steve McCullough of the Internal Revenue Service.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... 991a94.451

[Forthefunorit]

The latest news from the Phoenix newspaper is that they might have moved on from horses to big equipment auctions. There were quite a few out of country license plates here for a recent auction and they are being watched closely.