The San Francisco Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has announced that Felipe de Jesus Ornelas Mora has been sentenced to 18 months in prison. His charges include laundering drug money and wiring it to Mexico through his Bay Area "money services" business.

According to a DEA press release, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick D. Robbins stated, "This defendant knowingly aided Bay Area drug dealers by disguising drug money as remittances and laundering it through his business through wire payments to Mexico." Robbins went on to say that Ornelas Mora admitted to sending cash from drug dealers to Mexico, evading detection by using legitimate customers' names and IDs. This allowed him to bypass Rincon's compliance controls set by its parent wire service. He also directed the splitting of cash into smaller wire transfers in order to avoid mandatory reporting requirements under federal law. As a result, Ornelas Mora was convicted of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

In the same DEA press release, DEA Special Agent in Charge Brian M. Clark said, "Money and greed are the foundation of the cartel business model and Ornelas Mora provided a lifeline by laundering drug proceeds." Clark added, "This sentence underscores our commitment to aggressively pursue every level of the drug supply chain to include those facilitators who enable transnational criminal networks."

As stated on its official website, the mission of the DEA is to safeguard American communities from the perils of criminal drug activities such as overdoses. The agency employs approximately 10,000 personnel with diverse expertise and operates in 241 domestic and 93 international offices.