FBI probes purchases of US aircraft by drug lords

MIAMI (Reuters) - A Venezuelan man has been charged with laundering drug profits to buy U.S. aircraft to smuggle cocaine, according to U.S. court documents, as the FBI broadens a probe into South American cocaine kings.

According to the indictment, Benavides opened an account at what it identified as the Commerce Bank in Miami in December 2000 that was subsequently used to launder drug profits and broker deals for the purchase of a U.S.-registered twin-engine King Air E90 in September 2006.

The plane was bought from a Miami company and sent to Venezuela using money that Benavides allegedly funneled from Venezuela-based traffickers through a Mexican money exchange into his Miami account. Read more..
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080205/ts_nm/usa_drugs_aircraft_dc