News

Six years after a high-profile raid on cash-intensive storefronts near downtown Los Angeles unearthed a massive trade-based money laundering network and tens of millions of dollars in drug proceeds, illicit finance has largely returned to the area, prompting federal law enforcement to prepare a new wave of cases, according to a senior investigator. Consisting of roughly 100 square blocks with more than 2,000 wholesale vendors of clothing, jewelry and other goods, the Los Angeles Fashion District gained notoriety in September 2014 when hundreds of police officers seized tens of millions of dollars from dozens of stores that prosecutors accused of...