Auto
Dealer prosecuted for selling cars to drug smugglers
Two West Side auto dealer owners lined their pockets by selling luxury
SUVs for cash to drug dealers, who used them to smuggle cocaine or heroin,
prosecutors alleged Monday.
In one case, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cocaine was later
found welded into the frame of an SUV seized by agents, prosecutors
contend.
Luxury cars seized
The accusations came as the trial for Amir Hosseini and
Hossein Obaei began in federal court. The men's dealerships -- Amer Leasing
Sales, American Car Exchange and SHO Auto Credit -- were shuttered by
authorities in 2005 and more than 100 vehicles, including Jaguars, BMWs,
Cadillacs and tricked-out SUVs, were seized.
Hosseini, of Winnetka, and Obaei, of Northbrook, are
accused of using their businesses as a haven for drug
runners and gang-bangers, laundering millions of dollars.
They allegedly helped drug dealers conceal their large
cash payments for vehicles and also put liens on paid-off
cars.
The liens meant that if the feds seized the vehicles,
they would have to turn them back over to the car dealers.
The dealers then allowed the gang-bangers to recover
the vehicle -- or any drugs still stashed inside, the
government alleges.
But defense lawyers say their clients were legitimate
businessmen who weren't about to question how their clientele
were able to pay in cash.
"Mr. Obaei is a used car dealer. He is not a drug dealer," said
his lawyer, Andrew Staes.
Staes said if some of Obaei's clients were drug dealers,
there's no evidence he knew about it.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Rubinstein said the
two "took street money and drug money and converted it
back into luxury cars."
Drugs welded into frame
In opening statements, Hosseini's lawyer, Pat Tuite, said
many of the witnesses expected to testify were doing so
to save their own skin. He suggested sales people who worked
for the men were tied to drugs and gangs -- not the owners.
While seizing SUVs at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Drug
Enforcement Administration and FBI discovered many were
purchased at the West Side dealerships.
In one case, a drug-sniffing canine hit on an SUV but
authorities couldn't find the "trap," a hidden compartment
used by drug dealers to stash drugs. They soon learned
from witnesses that the cocaine was packaged and actually
welded into the car's frame, Rubinstein said.
Source:
Chicago
Sun-Times
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