Law enforcement officers have arrested nine people and seized $65 million after a raid on dozens of businesses in the Los Angeles fashion district Wednesday morning.  These businesses were reportedly laundering money for the Sinaloa Mexican drug cartel.

Hundreds of federal authorities spread throughout downtown Los Angeles to sweep roughly 70 targets in the citiy.

Q.T. Fashion was among the stores raided by the police. The Los Angeles Times reports that Sinaloa cartel bosses were using Q.T. Fashion and dozens more businesses like it as a medium to collect money. Q.T. fashion is unique in that it was used to collect ransoms from the family of an individuals that the cartel was holding hostage. 

The family of a kidnapping victim entered the Q.T. Fashion shop earlier this week and paid the ransom money of $140,000 to the business. The shop then reportedly used the money for clothing shipments to a Sinaloa importer. The Sinaloa importer then paid for the goods in pesos that would go back to the cartel.

In this way, the cartel was using these small businesses to move millions of dollars for illegal activity and to convert their enterprise dollars into pesos., investigators say.  

Authorities have become so accustomed to taking drug money in the fashion district that it has practically become a routine for the department.

In the past decade, the U.S. and Mexico have made efforts to tighten financial reporting requirements in an effort to limit the amount of cash smuggled across both sides of the border. The cartel has responded, however, with more unfamiliar ways to get their money to Mexico, including the use of local businesses.

According to court documents uncovered by the Wall Street Journal, the process of the L.A. garment and clothing businesses accepting and repaying the drug cartels in pesos would effectively clean the money for the criminals. This allowed them to bypass many of the wires and hurdles set up for them by the banks.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that three individuals from Southern California connected with Q.T. fashion were arrested. One of them, Jose Isabel Gomez Arreoloa, has confirmed that he will plead not guilty, per his attorney. Following the arrest of the three workers, the kidnapping victim was returned to the custody of their family.

Other businesses involved in the raid process included Yili Underwear and Gayima Underwear, who each had individuals that were arrested on Wednesday.

A fourth business, Pacific Eurotex Corp., has also been confirmed to have four arrests. Each of the individuals are charged with conspiracy to launder money and illegally structuring financial transactions to avoid reporting requirements.