#illicit activity

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/Ft3Skp

CARACAS, | Venezuela takes charge of big bank, arrests 11 executives

CARACAS, Venezuela— Venezuela arrested 11 top officials from the country’s largest private bank and announced that the state would intervene in the institution’s activities at least temporarily to clean up purported illicit activity, officials said Thursday.

It was not clear whether the 90-day intervention would be a first step toward a full takeover of Banesco. It’s the second round of arrests recently at a private interest following the detention of two Chevron employees.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab in a state TV broadcast announced that the Banesco executives had been detained following a “surgical” probe uncovering “irregularities” that devalued Venezuela’s flagging currency.

Critics of President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government point to the administration’s own missteps for the country’s spiraling quadruple digit inflation, making common goods too expensive for most residents.

Hours after the arrests, the government released a statement announcing its intervention into Banesco aimed at redirecting its administration and purging the bank, while putting a deputy finance minister at its helm.

Officials have previously accused criminal networks of smuggling Venezuelan bolivars across the border to manipulate the black market exchange rate. Investigators said they linked a large number of suspect Banesco accounts with addresses in Colombia and Panama.

Banesco’s executive president Oscar Doval Garcia was among those arrested.

Juan Carlos Escotet, president of Banesco International, denounced the government action as “disproportionate” from a meeting in Portugal. He was not among those detained and said he was planning his immediate return to Venezuela.

“I will go to Venezuela with peace of mind to support my colleagues,” he said on Twitter, adding that his bank follows all regulations. “I put myself at the service of the government with the confidence that everything will be clarified.”

The arrests are part of an operation to take down an alleged international network accused of manipulating the black market exchange rate, which values $1 at more than 10 times Venezuela’s official exchange rate.

The operation has netted 134 arrests and led to 1,380 frozen bank accounts, the majority belonging to Banesco.

The bank executives’ detention follows the arrest in April of two Chevron Corp. employees based in Venezuela in what appeared to be the first such detentions of a private oil company’s workers amid a growing anti-corruption purge.

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By Associated Press – published on STL.News by St. Louis Media, LLC (Z.S)

It is fascinating how core espionage skills have transferred so well to other clandestine activities. Once money no longer has to physically change hands it is entirely possible for a transfer of illicit goods to be done via dead drop. The one way nature of a dead drop is perfect for this sort of transaction, allowing the dealer to avoid the risks of compromise almost completely. All risk is transferred to the buyer, who is strongly incentivized to take risks (they need their drugs!)

This sort of arrangement is also suggested by "never get busted again vol 2" which has some truly excellent tradecraft suggestions.

I’ve been living under the overpass at 23rd and Northgate for almost two weeks now. I’ve stumbled into a homeless man on the porch and a prostitute in the living room. I shamefully gleefully ate Taco Bell alone, twice. I’ve felt a bit more comfortable in the ‘hood the past few days, probably because I’ve been with J almost exclusively.

How safe am I, really? 

How dangerous is it, really?

I told J earlier this week that I refuse to be afraid of poor people and black people.

How naive is that statement, really?

I’m not sure. I’ve never been made to feel – and felt - so aware of my personal physical safety. I size up every black man between the ages of 15 and 60 that passes me on the street and wonder if they’ll be the one to hurt me, to rob me, to rape me. My step quickens. The hold I have on my iPhone tightens. I know some of my female friends feel this fear acutely and frequently, and not just in a seedy, crime-ridden neighborhood bordering wild wild West Oakland. I've been trying to perfect my 'I will fucking kill you if you mess with me' face, but even I know that perhaps this is not my most winning strategy. 

The house that gives me the most pause is next door. Two men are usually posted up on the stoop, as people of all ages and one race stream in and out and idle. The upside is, my housemate committed a felony when he asked and they succeeded in removing a 'boot' put on his car by the city for failing to pay ‘five or six’ outstanding parking tickets. ?

I don’t really know what to make of it. I’m obviously erring on the side of safety. Can I enjoy living in a place where I know I shouldn’t feel safe? Rent is dirt cheap. The therapy I’ll undergo if I’m the victim of a violent crime will not be.