Cash cards used to launder dirty money

By Amy Isackson / Border Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published January 23, 2006 at 9:00 PM PST

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

Criminals who need to launder money have turned to gift and cash cards to clean up their illicit funds. KPBS reporter Amy Isackson has the story.

Criminals who need to launder money have turned to gift and cash cards to clean up their illicit funds. KPBS reporter Amy Isackson has the story.

Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Misha Piastro says drug organizations, in particular, end up with a lot of cash. He says federal officials have cracked down on traditional money laundering methods, like wire transfers or investing in real estate or the stock market. He believes that's forced criminals to devise new methods.

Piastro: "Gift cards or phone cards. Any of these cards with electronic strips that you can put value on. These drug trafficking organizations can then spend those cards anywhere in the United States or anywhere in the world and thereby effectively spend their drug proceeds."

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Piastro says his agency is keeping a close watch on this new trend along the California Mexico border.

The DEA seized $17 million in drug money in San Diego last year. That's up
$6 million from 2004. Amy Isackson, KPBS news.

Amy Isackson

Amy Isackson was the border reporter at KPBS from 2004 to 2011. She covered breaking news and feature stories on California-Mexico border issues and immigration, for local and national broadcast. Amy got her start in public radio by pitching a series of stories about rural New Zealand - horse dentistry and sheep sheering - to Radio New Zealand's "Country Life" program. She then worked with Peabody Award-winning radio producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, to help create the Sonic Memorial, a series of stories on the World Trade Center before, during and after 9/11. Amy's work has been recognized with awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California and Nevada, the California Chicano News Media Association, and the San Diego Press Club. She won the Sol Price Prize for Responsible Journalism in 2009 from the Society of Professional Journalists for her story about high school students smuggling people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to venturing into the wonderful world of public radio, Amy worked for Yahoo! Inc. for nearly five years as an editorial surfer, associate producer and broadcast communications manager. She majored in Latin American History at Williams College. She grew up in San Diego and made frequent trips south of the border.

See stories by Amy Isackson