By Gangsters Inc. Editors

Whoever said drug money is easy money forgot he had to clean it. Hundreds of millions of it. Cleaning dirty money is one of the underworld’s most valued – literally – tasks. Clean money, after all, is easy money. Free to spend wherever you please. Robert Mazur knows all about money laundering and the drug cartels that need help with such a task.

You might know Mazur. His story was turned into the “The Infiltrator,” which became a New York Times bestseller. It then was developed into a 2016 film of the same title, starring Bryan Cranston (as Mazur), John Leguizamo, and Diane Kruger. Nowadays, Mazur speaks and consults on the issues of money laundering, drug trafficking, and corruption around the world through his company, KYC Solutions.

Talking shop

He also sat down with Insider to talk about his time as a government agent investigating drug-money laundering. He went undercover for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service intelligence division, and the Customs Service.

In Operation C-Chase, Mazur successfully infiltrated the Medellín cartel by posing as a wealthy, mob-connected businessman named Robert Musella. He established connections with Pablo Escobar’s lawyer Gonzalo Mora and Escobar’s trafficker Roberto Alcaino. At the height of its power, the cartel is estimated to have supplied over 80% of all cocaine shipped to the US, around 15 tons a day.

In Operation Promo, he posed as an Italian American businessman named Robert Baldasare to expose money-laundering networks associated with the Cali cartel. At its peak, the Cali cartel is estimated to have produced 80% of the world’s cocaine supply. It was controlled by Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela, Pacho Herrera, and José Santacruz Londoño.

Watch the interview below: