Laundered And Hung Out To Dry

Feds use a bogus stock firm to nab traffickers

It's hard to think of anyone who could resist the call of today's roaring bull market. So when agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration set out to crack a Colombian cocaine ring three years ago, they opened a fully licensed--but also fully bogus--brokerage in suburban Atlanta to get inside the drug world. Even though the customers never made a single stock trade--double-digit stock gains are paltry in contrast to 400% returns on cocaine--the sting paid off last week with federal indictments of five Colombians, who are believed to have ties to the Cali drug cartel, on drug trafficking and money-laundering charges....

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