Organized Crime: All That Glitters . . .

Stephen Saccoccia thought he could go on laundering hundreds of millions in drug money forever. He was wrong.

To the merchants who line the rough-and-tumble streets of New York City's diamond district, he is known as Steve "Yorakim" -- Hebrew for green, the color of money. But to prosecutors in Manhattan, as well as Miami, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Providence, Stephen Anthony Saccoccia is known as one of the country's biggest, savviest and most wanted money launderers for Colombia's drug cartels. That is, until shortly before Thanksgiving weekend, when hundreds of government agents mounted a simultaneous five-state assault on Saccoccia's organization, arresting and indicting 50 people and seizing millions of dollars' worth of businesses, houses, cars and cash that...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!