A multi-year U.S. Justice Department investigation has resulted in a 10-count superseding indictment of 24 Los Angeles-based associates of the Mexican drug cartel Sinaloa. The defendants were charged with conspiring to launder more than $50 million in drug trafficking proceeds through groups with ties to Chinese underground banking.
According to a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) press release, the indictment, unsealed on June 17, charges the 24 defendants with one count of conspiracy to aid and abet the distribution of cocaine and methamphetamine, one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, and one count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. Twenty of the defendants will be arraigned in the U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles this summer. One defendant was arraigned on June 17.
The superseding indictment claims that the Sinaloa money laundering network collected and transferred drug proceeds using a San Gabriel Valley, Calif.-based money transmitting group. Proceeds from drug activities in the United States were made accessible to cartel members in Mexico and other countries. Lead defendant Edgar Joel Martinez-Reyes, 45, of East Los Angeles, and others allegedly hid the money’s source using various methods such as trade-based money laundering, "structuring" assets to avoid federal financial reporting requirements, and purchasing cryptocurrency.
This investigation, called "Operation Fortune Runner," also led to the seizure of approximately $5 million in narcotics proceeds, 302 pounds of cocaine, 92 pounds of methamphetamine, 3,000 Ecstasy pills, 44 pounds of psilocybin (magic mushrooms), numerous ounces of ketamine, three semi-automatic rifles with high-capacity magazines, and eight semi-automatic handguns.
"Dangerous drugs like fentanyl and methamphetamine are destroying people’s lives but drug traffickers only care about their profits," stated U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California in the press release. "To protect our community, therefore, it is essential that we go after the sophisticated international criminal syndicates that launder the drug money."
