Feds pursue money-launderer's fortune

PROVIDENCE, R.I., Nov. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. prosecutors say they are still trying to recover tens of millions of dollars 16 years after Stephen Saccoccia was convicted of laundering drug money.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Ionnatti says prosecutors currently have more tools for recovering forfeited assets than they did when Saccoccia was sentenced to 660 years in prison for laundering Colombian drug cash.

"Certainly the ability to track assets (through computer databases) is

more sophisticated than it was 18 years ago," Ionnatti told the Providence (R.I.) Journal, adding that prosecutors also have "more legal weapons" that allow the seizure of overseas bank accounts.

Saccoccia was a Providence coin dealer who also laundered drug sales for Colombian traffickers during the heyday of the big-money cocaine trade. The Journal reported Saturday that Saccoccia and his wife consistently refuse to cooperate with authorities who continue trying to track down the $136 million the couple were ordered to forfeit.

The newspaper said Saccoccia last month lost in an attempt to get the U.S. Supreme Court to review a court order regarding the seizure of $58,000 in cash, guns and property the FBI had seized. So far, authorities' international hunt for Saccoccia's assets has yielded about $13 million.