TAMPA, Fla. — A couple from Tampa were sentenced after leading a money laundering organization responsible for receiving more than $20 million, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release Monday.
Virginia Garcia Moreta, 35, and Hector Rodriguez Mendez, 47, laundered millions of dollars in drug proceeds in over 400 transactions within their organization, DOJ said.
The pair received large amounts of drug proceeds and also gave loads of cash with purchase instructions to people who were recruited by Mendez to buy cashier's checks, court documents from the DOJ show.
The checks reportedly were usually listed as the remitter either a co-conspirator or a registered business in the co-conspirator's name. The checks were also given to others businesses and people involved in the money laundering scheme.
The couple would travel to different banks in one day to help avoid suspicion, DOJ says.
“The main motivation of these drug trafficking organizations is profit at the expense of the safety and health of our citizens. The actions of these individuals assisted the drug traffickers bringing this poison into our communities,” DEA Miami Field Division Special Agent in Charge Deanne L. Reuter said in a statement. “This successful collaboration between the DEA Miami Field Division and our federal partners highlights the importance of financial investigations in the fight against narcotics trafficking in Florida.”
Troopers with the Florida Highway Patrol stopped Garcia Moreta on June 18, 2019, and found her with a bag containing cashier's checks and receipts for those checks totaling more than $1 million, the news release mentioned.
Investigators say they found a total of $21,567,939 laundered from the scheme with the couple's share of the money coming at about three percent.
“The dirty cash from drug trafficking cannot legally be introduced into the commerce stream, so traffickers rely on money launderers to 'clean it',” Brian Payne, IRS-CI special agent in charge, said in a statement. “Those who launder drug proceeds are just as vile and culpable as the traffickers themselves, which is why today’s sentences properly hold the defendants responsible for their actions.”
Moreta and Mendez were sentenced to 70 and 63 months, respectively, in federal prison for conspiring to commit money laundering.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations and the Florida Highway Patrol investigated this case.
