Dutch receive $3 million from HSI Operation Pac Rim investigation
WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) The Hague, returned $3 million U.S. dollars to the Ministry of Security and Justice, the Office of the National Public Prosecutor and the National Police of the Netherlands for their assistance in seizing assets from a Colombian drug cartel during an HSI-led investigation, Operation Pac Rim.
Operation Pac Rim, a three-year investigation, began in September 2009. HSI, in collaboration with international partners, seized the equivalent of more than $170 million dollars in U.S. currency and more than $800 million dollars in property worldwide. International partners in this investigation included law enforcement from Colombia, Mexico and the Netherlands.
“Cooperation between the Netherlands and the United States in financial investigations has never been greater or more successful,” said David Adkins, HSI Attaché The Hague. “This seizure would have been impossible without the cooperation of our Dutch law enforcement counterparts.”
During the investigation, HSI identified a significant sum of euros – the equivalent of $8 million in U.S. currency – in the Netherlands that was derived from international narcotics trafficking. The National Public Prosecutor’s Office assisted HSI in locating and seizing these assets, which prevented one of the largest drug cartels in the world from profiting from its criminal activity. With the Netherlands’ assistance in seizing the illicit assets, HSI dismantled a billion dollar drug cartel.
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