State focusing on cross-border trafficking and financial crime

“Highly organized” and increasingly tech savvy criminal groups are laundering money, committing cyber crimes and transporting human beings, drugs and weapons from Mexico into the United States through San Diego, State Attorney General Kamala Harris said Tuesday.

In response, Harris said the state is working closely with local, federal and international authorities to investigate and prosecute these crimes by sharing information, expertise and resources.

Tuesday morning, Harris toured the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the busiest land border crossing in the Western Hemisphere. Afterward, in remarks to the media, Harris said the state is tuning into the way criminals are using technology, particularly for financial crimes like money-laundering and identity theft.

“We are renewing our focus and dedicating resources to addressing that as one of the newest and latest methods and tools that organized criminal groups have used to commit their crimes,” she said.

San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis expressed support for the state’s work and a commitment to collaborate.

On Thursday, the attorney general’s office will release a report that details trans-border crimes, along with tactics for combating them. Next week, Harris and several other state attorneys general will travel to Mexico to meet with authorities there, to flesh out ways the countries can work together.

Here are three of the upcoming report’s findings:

• Approximately 70 percent of the methamphetamine shipped into the United States is moved through San Diego.

• 250,000 weapons are smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border each year.

• Investigators counted at least 1,300 people who were trafficked through the San Diego area between 2010 and 2012.

Speaking on the pedestrian bridge that overlooks the border crossing and Tijuana, Harris said she came to the San Ysidro Port of Entry ”to see it first hand.”

Harris said the state’s role will be to coordinate local, state and federal efforts, as well as those of Mexican authorities. As an example of the state’s involvement, she cited her office’s foreign prosecution and law enforcement unit, which is responsible for suspects who committed crimes in California and then fled to Mexico.

The state also has investigators who focus on prescription drugs that are being transported across the border and illegally sold in California, Harris said.