El Paso, TX – In a major blow to transnational organized crime, 53-year-old Jose Luis Rodriguez, owner of ERENE, Inc., was sentenced to 121 months in federal prison for his role in a staggering $100 million trade-based money laundering scheme announced United States Attorney Richard Durbin, Jr.
Rodriguez, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering on the fourth day of his federal jury trial, admitted to conspiring with others to launder the proceeds of a scheme to illegally smuggle millions of dollars worth of goods into Mexico without paying the tariffs, duties, and fees imposed by the Mexican government.
According to the investigation, from March 6, 2006 to November 2014, goods were smuggled using ‘pasadores’ or black market smugglers and were done so without following the U.S. laws and regulations applicable to the export of goods from the United States. Between 2012 and 2014, more than an estimated $2.3 million in bribes were paid to Mexican customs officials to facilitate the scheme.
“Today’s sentence is the culmination of a successful multi-agency investigation into a transnational criminal organization,” said Waldemar Rodriguez, special agent in charge of HSI El Paso. “HSI will continue to work with our law enforcement partners in the United States and Mexico to investigate and expose money laundering regardless of the schemes that are utilized.”
In addition to the prison term, United States District Judge David C. Guaderrama ordered that Rodriguez pay a $10,000 fine and be placed on supervised release for a period of three years after completing his prison term. The judge also ordered Rodriguez to forfeit to the Government property located at 600 S. Stanton in El Paso and approximately $650,000 in U.S. Currency seized from his bank accounts, as well as shoe and other products seized during the investigation valued at over $1 million.
Rodriguez, who owned ERENE, a company that primarily sells shoes and other goods to U.S. and Mexican-based customers, was not the only one involved in the scheme. Three co-defendants, including ERENE Assistant Manager Jorge Penuelas, ERENE employee Manuel Rodriguez, and Ricardo Cruz-Olguin, entered guilty pleas to the conspiracy charge prior to jury selection, with their sentences ranging from one year incarceration to three years probation. Two other co-defendants, Cesar Salazar-Carrillo and Amalia Turcio Ortega, are fugitives.
The investigation was conducted by the HSI’s Financial Operations & Currency Unified Strikeforce (FOCUS), which comprised investigators from HSI, IRS – Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Customs and Border Protection – Office of Field Operations (CBP-OFO), the El Paso Police Department, and the Texas Attorney General’s Office, with the Government of Mexico Servicio de Administracion Tributaria (SAT) also assisting in the investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Joseph Blackwell and John Gibson.
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Key Facts
- State: Texas
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes|Organized Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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