Law enforcement officials were investigating a Mexican drug cartel.

And a few years ago, they hit the streets in Queens, New York, entailed some of the alleged criminals.

Law enforcement were following the money.

They were following careers as they were delivering cash. the money laundering ring and

and fleshing. That's our colleague Dylan Tokar.

So they were following these cars, Alexis, a box truck through the streets of Queens as it went from bank branch to bank branch.

And the members of this money laundering group were carrying banks of cash into these different bank locations and basically depositing at the bank with the help of tellers and you know as law enforcement was tracking this activity they came to see that

you know these money launders were using multiple financial institutions but there was one that the

money launders were using in particular and that was TD Bank.

TD Bank, one of the largest banks in Canada in the US.

And yesterday, this investigation came to a dramatic conclusion.

P.D. Bank created an environment that allowed financial crime to flourish.

By making its services convenient for criminals, it became one.

What we saw yesterday was really a historic settlement.

You know, TD Bank has just become the largest bank in US history to plead guilty to what's called Bank Secrecy Act violations.

That's the law that requires them to prevent money laundering from happening.

They've just been handed the largest penalty ever imposed under that act.

The bank pleaded guilty to money laundering charges and agreed to pay a $3 billion fine.

Welcome to the Journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Ryan Knutzen. It's Friday, October 11th.

Coming up on the show, how criminal groups laundered more than

670 million dollars through TD Bank. Adobe Express is the quick and easy Create Anything app. It's my go to for making my business stand out.

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