A Mexican national has been sentenced to 100 months in prison for his role in laundering $5.4 million in drug proceeds.
Jose Manuel Martinez Gomez, a/k/a Meño, served as a ‘money broker’ in an organization that aided the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) by collecting, laundering, and repatriating drug proceeds generated in the United States to the cartel in Mexico.
Martinez personally arranged for the laundering of $5,462,289 that was proceeds of drug trafficking crimes. He used a network of co-conspirators to pick up those drug proceeds all over the United States. After money was delivered in the United States, Martinez provided instructions for the transfer of those funds via cryptocurrency, including providing a cryptocurrency wallet address, or a bank account.
Martinez worked for ‘commissions,’ or a percentage of the money laundered successfully. As a direct result of the money laundering contracts brokered by Martinez, DEA Lexington and its domestic partners seized a staggering quantity of drugs, including approximately 3 kilograms of fentanyl, 52.77 kilograms of cocaine, 7,078.63 kilograms of unconverted methamphetamine in the form of charcoal lumps, 170 gallons of unconverted methamphetamine in the form of coconut oil, 140 kilograms of methamphetamine, and 15 gallons of liquid methamphetamine.
The DEA also seized $1,352,160 in bulk U.S. currency.
Martinez pleaded guilty on March 7 to money laundering conspiracy and concealment money laundering. He will serve his 100-month prison sentence. The case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and other transnational criminal organizations, disrupt the flow of illicit drugs, and dismantle human trafficking networks.
Deputy Criminal Chief Todd Bradbury of the Eastern District of Kentucky and Trial Attorney Elizabeth R. Rabe of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section prosecuted this case. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Lexington Resident Office investigated the case, working closely with the Detroit Field Division and Rocky Mountain Field Division, and assisted by DEA offices in Mexico, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Birmingham, Chicago, Cincinnati, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Louisville, Baltimore, Des Moines, Milwaukee, Portland, Columbia, and Rapid City, as well as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation Division.
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Key Facts
- State: Kentucky
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Drug Trafficking|Fraud & Financial Crimes|Violent Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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