The international drug cartels that view Columbus as one of many distribution hubs might not know or care when city police bust a street-level dealer or strung-out junkie.
"When I take $900,000 off them one day in Columbus, Ohio, and then get them for $100,000 another day, with another $100,000 in between, then I've got their attention," said Cmdr. Gary Cameron of the Columbus police narcotics bureau.
Drugs and drug money go hand-in-hand, but smart traffickers know to keep the two apart. A newer Columbus-based task force, started by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations, follows the money.
"The No. 1 way to target and dismantle a criminal group is to hit them where it hurts the most — in their pocketbooks," said William Hayes, acting special agent in charge of the Detroit office of Homeland Security Investigations.
Since starting work in February, the Bulk Cash Smuggling Task Force has seized nearly $2.4 million in cash, 17 guns, 13 pounds of cocaine, 4 pounds of heroin and 197 pounds of marijuana. Most of it came from the Columbus metropolitan area.
The task force has made 111 arrests relating to smuggling and money laundering. The team consists of federal agents, Columbus and Hilliard police, State Highway Patrol troopers and Franklin County deputies.
The local task force sprang from broader law-enforcement efforts to target the huge sums of illicit cash moving through and out of the United States, largely by drug traffickers whose traditional money-laundering schemes were curtailed by tougher laws and more sophisticated banking practices.
The cartels now smuggle their cash profits much as they smuggle their drugs: inside shipping containers, tires and car bumpers. Because traffickers don't want their product and profits together, they maintain separate networks for the returning cash, Cameron said.
"We try to interdict the money shipments going back to Mexico," he said.
The largest single cash seizure made by the task force so far was $946,024, Cameron said.
Khaalid Walls, an ICE public-affairs officer, said the task force is one of the first in the country and, given what officials feel is a successful start, will be used as a model for other cities.
"We're definitely looking for more partners," he said.