U.S., Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay Form Transparency Trade Unit

On March 13, 2006, The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency announced the creation of a new trade transparency unit with Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. According to ICE the trade transparency units (TTUs) "will be able to detect and investigate anomalies in international commerce that may be indicative of trade-based money laundering or other criminal activities." ICE said the new units in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay "will investigate and prosecute crimes related to trade-based money laundering," while targeting alternative remittance systems, terrorist financing, contraband smuggling, tax evasion and other crimes … [more]