US Citizen Laundered South American Drug Cartel Money in Guatemala Casinos
By Sol Prendido 8/08/2021
A US citizen pleaded guilty in a federal courtroom Monday to laundering money for South American drug cartels, partly through two casinos he owned in Guatemala.
Xizhi Li, pictured, allegedly entertained fellow gangsters at his casinos in Guatemala City.
Xizhi Li, 48, is accused of washing at least $30 million for drugs gangs, including the notorious Sinaloa Cartel and its former leader, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
According to prosecutors, Li played a “leadership role” in a years-long conspiracy that used “a foreign casino, foreign and domestic front companies, foreign and domestic bank accounts, false passports, and other false identification documents to launder money on behalf of transnational drug-trafficking organizations whose main drug-trafficking activities involved cocaine.”
Moving Money
China-born, naturalized US citizen Li is a former LA restaurateur who most recently lived in Mexico. With co-conspirator Eric Yong Woo, he bought the Golden Video Loteria and Golden MGM casinos in Guatemala City.
According to an unnamed confidential federal witness, as well as using the casinos to launder money, the men went into the gambling business “to show drug cartel representatives that they were wealthy businessmen” and “were capable of successfully moving drug money, and that if the money was seized, they would be capable of repaying.”
More:
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2021/08/us-citizen-laundered-south-american.html
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