Two hundred federal agents and police raided 25 money remitter stores yesterday in the metropolitan area, seeking more than two dozen people charged with turning the businesses into money-laundering operations for the leaders of drug cartels...

The remitter stores, sometimes called "people's banks" and usually located in poorer or minority neighborhoods, are legal businesses that remit - or send - money by wire, usually to family members overseas...

...Contributing to the popularity of the remitter shops is that a number of banks have halted involvement recently in the remitting business because of increased paperwork required by the government crackdown on possible sources of funding for terrorists overseas...