Today is Monday, May 18th, 2020.

On this day in 1998, the United States Department of Justice and Department of the Treasury announced the arrests of over 20 Mexican bankers.

All of them connected to Drug Cartel money laundering.

It was one of the largest laundering busts in history.

Welcome to today in True Crime, a parcast original.

Today we're covering Operation Casablanca, a three-year-long undercover operation linking various Mexican banks to drug cartels.

Let's go back to Washington, D.C. on the morning of May 18th, 1998.

Attorney General Janet Reno and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin were about to make an announcement.

The press room bustled with reporters.

Word was out that today's news was something major.

None of the papers wanted to miss this.

An abrupt silence fell as Secretary Rubin

cleared his throat and began to read his statement.

Today, we have hurt the drug cartels where it hurts the most, in their pocketbooks.

He continued with the details.

The United States would be throwing money laundering charges at 26 Mexican bank officials

and three of Mexico's largest banks,

Confia, Bank Omar and Banca Serfine.

The reporter started whispering, but Rubin wasn't done.

Mexican bankers weren't the only ones the US had rounded up.

They'd also hit some of the biggest cartels directly arresting 14 members of the Colombian

Cali cartel and two members of the Mexican Juarez cartel. With the help of

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