The CIA follows the money trail... to the Caribbean.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been accused of secretly collecting bulk records of money transfers to the Caribbean and other places handled by companies like Western Union and MoneyGram. Government officials said the transfers include transactions into and out of the United States under the same law that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) uses for its huge database of Americans’ phone records.

The New York Times, quoting several current and former government officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter is classified, said the program is authorized by provisions in the Patriot Act and overseen by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

“The intelligence community collects bulk data in a number of different ways under multiple authorities,” one intelligence official told the paper. Click HERE to view the article.

Robert Morton writes the Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster in the Carbbean and Florida Keys spy series.