[fkn]

I'd be interested in knowing how they were able to buy Boeing 747s. Those are huge transactions, you can't simply buy planes with cash.

I would assume that it would be through shell companies, but wouldn't (or shouldn't) Boeing be careful about who their customers are?

[larrys]

"but wouldn't (or shouldn't) Boeing be careful about who their customers are?"

Forgetting for a second whether we are talking about Boeing or the used market that is what money laundering is all about. Taking ill gotten gains and putting into a legitimate business. It wouldn't be a stretch to form a legitimate air charter company and even get customers as a cover for buying an airplane. If you've got the level of money they have there are many things you can do. Obviously you are hiding the transactions even if some of the parties might know there is something wrong going on.

[ceejayoz]

Hell, it'd be good for your cover if 99 out of 100 flights are genuine charters with real passengers on board.

[gwern]

'Money doesn't stink', as the Roman Emperor said. Who's to say they aren't selling?

But in any case, money and planes are pretty fungible. Perhaps they use straw buyers, or perhaps they simply buy used. Plenty of 747s out there now.

[ChuckMcM]

I was going to say the same thing, you see a lot of them parked on the tarmac in Mojave with out of business livery or sometimes just painted white.

There have been stories of folks laundering money in the middle east where there are apparently a lot of 'cash' jobs that take US currency, still the cartoon picture of the pallets of cash was pretty hilarious. I wonder if you could trade a pallet of cash for a check from a Saudi Prince?

I am most fascinated by the tunnels though. At some point these guys will be able to plan long enough ahead that they can buy a tunnel boring machine and starting south of the border have it end up in like down town San Diego. Maybe they could fund one of those evacuated tunnel trains we read about here recently :-). Given the work on quad copters I'm still surprised that there aren't semi autonomous groups of quad-copter mules carrying cocaine in swarms from point A to point B.

[cdibona]

Tunnel boring machines are extremely difficult to buy and more difficult still to run without oversight. They're just incredibly complex and hard to maintain machines. It's not impossible mind you , I mean, the cartels have all kinds of expertise available to them, but consider that the cartels have access to humans enslaved by their drug habits. Many people, fueled by cocaine, with picks and shovels can make short work of a tunnel like those described in the article.

[ChuckMcM]

You are much more practical than I am Chris. Looking at what humans, motivated by gold, did to the Sierras I'd have to concur it would be far simpler to do it your way.

[fkn]

If that day were to come, as a hacker, how do you turn down a chance to work with a well-funded customer that want you to build a evacuated tunnel train, but on the other hand, this is essentially blood money. A passion vs moral dilemma...

[nikcub]

You are completely missing what the cartels are. They aren't gangsters in mountains with bales of cash. They are hundreds of businesses, thousands of people in everyday life, part of the law, justice system, etc.

Having a 747 isn't that much of an accomplishment when you consider that the Google guys have 7 planes and their own NASA airport.

[Alex3917]

They launder their money through major banks like Wells Fargo. If you do a Google search there are hundreds of recent news stories about this.

[peregrine]

Times are not great for plane airlines, I'm sure a struggling airline CEO would have no issue selling a plane to ShellCorp with a large bag of money.

[abalashov]

Airlines in the developed world almost never own planes, especially in the dimensions of any typical commercial airliner. The other problems that plane ownership brings (besides routine maintenance, which the airlines do own) are outside the desired core competency of airlines. The leasing of aircraft to commercial airlines is quite an industry in itself, and the transactions often involve complex, multilateral bond financing. There are almost always complex financing arrangements involved. Few buy a 737 with a bag of cash anymore than one buys a skyscraper outright. It is done by some of the world's less creditworthy airlines, and American has a penchant for owning, but it is increasingly not the normal industrial practice. Investors go in on planes just as they do on any other massively expensive capital goods.

Thus, the key for a drug cartel would be to get the various intermediaries involved in the aircraft leasing and financing process (some of which are surely quite corruptible) to lease one to ShellCorp, or buy on the secondary market, as some have suggested.

The bigger mystery for me is how they manage to fly in the context of overall international airspace control and air traffic control. Like someone else said, a 747 can't take off and land on a desolate patch of grass. Law enforcement and intelligence aren't stupid; they know how much money is in the "air charter" business, and it definitely won't pay for a 747. Charter companies use much smaller aircraft.

Edit: Unlike airlines, drug cartels actually do have the cash to buy a $138m plane outright, yes. But that would set off enormous alarm bells, because nobody otherwise obscure does that.

Edit: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/business/10flyboy.html?_r=...

[46Bit]

I would assume they weren't new planes: likely easier to buy them off a company in a country with lax regulation than get Boeing to build you one.

[refurb]

Exactly. Lots of relatively undeveloped nations have their own carriers.

I can't imagine it would be than hard to buy a used 747 from a state with a dictator that was hard up for money.