DETECTIVES from the Financial Investigations Division and the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch have arrested and charged Manchester businesswoman, Eva Mae Sterling, her son Nicholas Chang and her sister Marline Ledford, of St Catherine, for money laundering offences.

Police said the arrests followed a culmination of intensive local and international efforts by law enforcement entities, which alleged that the accused persons purchased a number of properties valued more than $100 million from the proceeds of drug trafficking activities engaged in by a close relative who was convicted in the USA in 2013.

Chang, Ledford and Sterling who have been charged with breaches of the Proceeds of Crime Act appeared yesterday before the St Andrew Parish Court where they were each offered bail in the sum of $700,000, with surety. Orders were also made regarding fingerprints and the surrender of travel documents.

They are to return to court on July 7.

A finance ministry release said the investigation is indicative of the continued joint approach being utilised by local and overseas investigators in effectively identifying, tracing and seizing property believed to be derived from criminal conduct, whether situated locally or overseas.

Investigators have, meanwhile, warned that law enforcement authorities will not spare their efforts in prosecuting people found to be facilitating launderers of ill-gotten gains, whether they are associates, family members or professional service providers.