Twelve people have been charged after a two-year federal investigation of a global criminal organization that is accused of laundering at least $16.5 million for the Sinaloa drug cartel, the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) announced April 11.
The organization has been dismantled and two victims of an extortion plot have been rescued, the news release reports.
“This operation highlights how the FBI and our law enforcement partners are joining efforts to dismantle organized, violent, criminal enterprises,” Stacey Moy, special agent in charge of the FBI San Diego Field Office said in the release. “These enterprises create a space for cartels to exist and we will spare no resources when it comes to addressing the criminals who enable the flow of poison to our communities.”
FBI agents launched an investigation in fall 2020 after discovering a complicated money laundering network allegedly run by Enrique Daan Esparragoza Rosas of Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, according to the indictment in the case.
Esparragoza's group used a system of fictitious businesses registered in Wyoming to launder millions of dollars in cash that belonged to the Sinaloa cartel. The indictment reported that Mesa, Ariz. resident and U.S. citizen Luis Ramirez was responsible for creating and managing the shell businesses and "sophisticated" financial network, according to the release.
Ramirez and Esparragoza organized and assisted personnel of the money-laundering company to travel to several American locations to collect money from drug traffickers, collecting the bulk of the cash in Chicago, Omaha, Boston, New York City, Baltimore, Charlotte, and Philadelphia, according to the release. After receiving the money, the criminal organization used the shell firms to launder it before transferring the funds to Mexican bank accounts. Several of the organization's bank accounts were targeted in total, and $1 million in cash and around $197,430 in bulk money were taken from those accounts, the news release reports.
Cristian Amaya Nava, the first defendant, was given a sentence of 60 months in jail in federal court for the counts of extortion and money laundering. Under his guilty deal, he acknowledged that in February 2021, under danger to themselves and their families, he coerced two victims into taking money out of their own accounts to pay off a drug debt. He also acknowledged laundering more than $2.4 million for the cartel.
“Mexican drug cartels cannot succeed without money launderers,” said U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman. “Our office will prosecute not only those who traffic in drugs but also those who enable the drug traffickers through sophisticated shell corporations and multiple bank accounts.”
