MILWAUKEE, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- Sixteen child-care sites in Wisconsin that received state subsidies also have links to drug-dealing operations, records indicate.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said Monday the records show many of the 16 child-care centers in Wisconsin with connections to drug-dealing operations were once used in either the transportation or housing of illegal drugs.
Those sites also were used to launder cash for drug sales and offered criminals fake employment opportunities, the Journal Sentinel said based on its investigative findings.
Since 2006, the 16 child-care sites in the state collected a total of more than $8.5 million in public subsidies.
The Journal Sentinel also cited its June report that nearly 500 child-care providers in the state have criminal records.
Mario Gonzales, a U.S. attorney's office drug prosecutor, spoke with the Milwaukee newspaper about the widespread links between child-care sites and illegal drug operations.
"Probably in 25 percent of the cases I deal with, there is a wife or girlfriend in the day-care business," Gonzales told the Journal Sentinel.
