Four Colombian men sentenced in drug money laundering scheme – WSB-TV Channel 2

ATLANTA — 4 males from Colombia have been sentenced for a drug cash laundering scheme with greater than $1 million concerned.

Gilberto Lopez-Giraldo, Raul Lopez-Giraldo, Guillermo Escobar, and Alexander Duque-Casanova have been sentenced for collaborating in a greater than $1.4 million drug cash laundering conspiracy involving main cities from throughout the USA to Cali, Colombia.

“Unlawful drug proceeds present the essential lifeblood for drug traffickers,” mentioned U.S. Lawyer Ryan Ok. Buchanan. “Our workplace is dedicated to disrupting the power of worldwide drug cartels to revenue from their unlawful actions by searching for to evade regulation enforcement detection by means of cash laundering operations performed inside the USA.”

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“These criminals thought their scheme would go undetected they usually might revenue from their prison actions, however they have been improper,” mentioned Particular Agent in Cost Katrina W. Berger, who oversees Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI) operations in Georgia and Alabama.

In keeping with Buchanan, the lads have been members of a cash laundering crew primarily based in Colombia, who coordinated the gathering of cash from drug traffickers in cities throughout the USA, together with Atlanta, Chicago, and New York.

The group laundered the cash by means of a community of financial institution accounts in the USA and elsewhere, in keeping with a information launch.

The Division of Justice mentioned the cash from these accounts was used to buy electronics and different items in the USA after which resold on the black market in Colombia. The aim of this scheme was to secretly convert the drug cash collected in the USA into Colombian pesos for drug trafficking organizations, in keeping with the information launch.

Through the investigation, the defendants and their co-conspirators orchestrated the gathering of drug earnings totaling about $1,496,817, in keeping with the discharge.

Throughout an undercover operation on November 21, 2012, investigators obtained $149,980 in U.S. foreign money from two conspirators who arrived in a truck within the parking zone of a retailer in Duluth, Georgia. The cash was wrapped in bundles and hidden in a field inside a rubbish bag. Brokers conducting surveillance of the assembly adopted the truck from the parking zone to a residence in Norcross, , which was later decided to be a methamphetamine conversion lab.

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The defendants have been later indicted on 5 counts of cash laundering within the Northern District of Georgia, and, with the cooperation of Colombian officers, arrested and extradited to the USA. On March 7, 2022, the defendants pleaded responsible to 1 rely of conspiracy to commit cash laundering and obtained the next sentences:

• Gilberto Lopez-Giraldo, 51, of Cali, Colombia, has been sentenced to 5 years, 10 months in jail.

•Raul Lopez-Giraldo, 40, of Cali, Colombia, has been sentenced to 5 years in jail.

• Guillermo Escobar, a/ok/a Memo, 54, of Cali, Colombia, has been sentenced to 6 years, six months in jail.

• Alexander Duque-Casanova, 48, of Cali, Colombia, has been sentenced to a few years, 10 months in jail.

The Court docket adjusted the sentence of every defendant downward by 12 months from these phrases of incarceration to account for the size of time the defendants spent in custody in Colombia, whereas awaiting extradition to the USA.

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