Record seizure of drug money

Web Posted: 03/16/2007 11:34 PM CDT

Dane Schiller
Express-News Mexico Bureau Chief
MEXICO CITY � It's a good bet at least a few gangsters are going to have to answer to underworld bosses � perhaps with their lives � for the $205 million in cash seized by federal agents here.
The money, mostly in U.S. $100 bills, was taken from a house in an upscale neighborhood where many of the city's politicians, diplomats and business leaders reside.

Powerful drug cartels long have handled cash in such quantities, but to find such a stash � let alone in the heart of the capital � is considered extraordinary.

Among the questions: Who tipped off Mexican federal agents about the money and to whom did it belong?

Authorities believe the stacks of greenbacks might have been assembled by a relatively new player in the drug world: an amphetamine trafficking organization or coalition of gangs with links to Asia.

"It is going to send a ripple effect through the organization involved," said Mike Vigil, a retired U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who once served as its chief of international operations.

"The first thing they will suspect is the possibility of an informant," he said of cartel bosses. "I am sure they will find dead bodies throughout Mexico as a result of this seizure."