Jose Abril-Sequera, 59, will spend 50 months in prison after a guilty plea to participating in a money laundering conspiracy. U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns issued the sentence. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced the sentence in a news release on August 2.
Abril-Sequera pleaded guilty to charges of participating in a money laundering conspiracy and conducting substantive money laundering operations in April 2024. According to the DEA news release, Abril-Sequera used his business bank account in Barranquilla, Colombia, to receive drug money. He received more than $250,000 in wire transfers to his business bank account and paid that money to the owners. In order to evade anti-money laundering protocols, he created fake invoices to account for the incoming funds. The DEA stated he knew how the money was earned and talked freely with others about laundering drug money.
During an investigation that started in 2016 and ended in 2022, an undercover investigator portrayed himself as an international money launderer, promising to pick up bulk cash around the world and launder it through his U.S.-based bank accounts before sending the money to Colombia via Black Market Peso Exchange.
Prosecutors on the case were Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jared C. Dolan and Alathea E. Porter.
This investigation is part of an operation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), which is known for identifying, disrupting, and dismantling high-level criminal organizations, according to the DEA news release.
According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), here’s how the Black Market Peso Exchange works: Colombian cartels get around the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act by sending drugs to the United States for sale; those drugs are sold for U.S. dollars. The cartel enters into a contract with a Black Market Peso exchanger who buys the cartel’s U.S. dollars for an agreed amount of pesos, which the cartel then receives. The peso exchanger then sells his U.S. dollars to Colombian importers who use them to buy goods.
The DEA enforces controlled substances laws and regulations of the United States and brings organizations and principal members involved in illicit traffic of controlled substances into the U.S. criminal and civil justice system, according to its "About" page on its website.
