AML / CFT: FBI's Operation Money Fish hooks Florida Mafia.

Members of the New York-based Bonanno crime family were making millions of dollars in South Florida cashing counterfeit cheques, running telemarketing scams, defrauding Medicare and replicating and selling people’s identities.

They needed a money launderer and the one they chose to rely on was supposedly a businessman with "connections in the banking industry."

Really, they should have done more effective customer due diligence for he was, in fact, an FBI officer working under cover.

The office says that the Bonanno family’s criminal enterprise in South Florida - led by Tommy Fiore, the nephew of reputed Bonanno capo Gerry Chili - was wide ranging. "In addition to the scams mentioned above, the crew also participated in arson, extortion, drug trafficking and buying and selling stolen cigarettes, TVs, and other ill-gotten goods."

But that wasn't what really drove the FBI's attention: " The Bonanno crew was manufacturing counterfeit payroll cheques from large companies and needed help cashing them. They would copy a legitimate cheque, change the account numbers and the amount and get "Dave Stone" (the false name of the undercover officer) to use his banking connections to turn the bad paper into cash. Dave and the crew then split the profits."

But, says the FBI, "in reality, since we controlled the operation, no businesses were actually defrauded."

Yet the Bonanno family's greatest money spinner was telemarketing fraud - a crime that the FBI says is "rampant in South Florida."

" A dozen people working the phones out of someone’s condo can generate big profits. A popular pitch now involves the resale of time share properties. The criminal telemarketers claim they will help people resell their time share, or the fee charged will be refunded in full. Unsuspecting victims on the other end of the line - mostly older people unable to sell the properties on their own—send in the USD5,000 or USD6,000 fee, and that’s the last they ever see of their money. No services are rendered, and none were ever intended to be."

The evidence gathered in Operation Money Fish by "Stone" along with intercepted phone calls and other electronic surveillance, was enough to put the entire 11-member operation out of business and behind bars after they all pleaded guilty.

But the FBI says it's not the end of the story: "“Absolutely they will try to start up again. The Bonanno family in New York - like the other families - has to have somebody down here making money because the guys at the top don’t do anything," said the officer.

Except live off laundered funds. Hey ho....