Drug money could be pushing up real estate

The proceeds from illicit drug sales could be funneling through South Florida’s bustling real estate market.

In recent criminal forfeiture cases, the feds have gone after properties they claim were bought with cocaine profits.

The feds say Alvaro Lopez Tardon, a Spanish citizen and alleged member of the Los Miami gang, pumped cash from Colombian cocaine sales to Europe into 14 condos during the last real estate boom, including the penthouse at the Continuum in South Beach, the South Florida Business Journal reported.

In Miami-Dade County, where as much as 90 percent of sales are to foreign buyers, limited-liability companies formed with drug money make bank transfers. Many foreign banks employ less scrutiny than U.S. banks, according to the Journal.

Billy Corben, a filmmaker and the director of the 2006 documentary “Cocaine Cowboys,” drew comparisons between the 1970s and 1980s drug trafficking industry in Miami and today.

“We’ve always subsisted in this town with the next hustle,” Corben told WLRN. “We don’t want to know where the money’s coming from.” [WLRN] – Emily Schmall

via The Real Deal Miami http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/trdnews_miami/~3/rsoPvvKZBoo/