Washington, D.C. - A Honduras-based Chinese national extradited from Guatemala pleaded guilty today to conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, conspiring to launder money derived from drug trafficking, and to providing material support to a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, specifically the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG). According...

WASHINGTON — Venezuela’s former Minister of Industry and National Production made his initial appearance today pursuant to an indictment unsealed in the Southern District of Florida charging him for his alleged role in a sprawling international money laundering conspiracy involving the corruption and exploitation of a Venezuelan public welfare program...

WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice announced charges against more than 25 individuals as part of a nationwide crackdown targeting the foreign terrorist organization (FTO), Tren de Aragua (TdA). Many of the defendants charged in this Homeland Security Task Force operation are illegal aliens from Venezuela, Colombia, and Honduras. TdA...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Caribbean Division announced the successful extradition of Nixon Manuel Marino-Carreño from Colombia to Puerto Rico, where he will face federal drug trafficking charges in the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. Marino-Carreño was arrested in Colombia...

NEW YORK - A fifth superseding indictment was filed yesterday in federal court in Brooklyn against Jobanis de Jesus Avila Villadiego, also known as “Chiquito” and “Chiquito Malo,” which added new charges of narcoterrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and providing or attempting to...

DETROIT – On Friday, the Department of Justice unsealed a civil case aiming to forfeit over $14.9 million seized from an international drug money laundering scheme, United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. announced. The lawsuit—originally filed in 2024—details the seizure of the funds and alleges a complex pattern of...

BOSTON – A Florida man has been sentenced in federal court in Boston for drug possession and distribution charges. Wuesley Pelaez Vela, 34, of Tallahassee, Fla., was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge William G. Young to nine years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised...

BOSTON – A Revere man has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug proceeds for drug suppliers based in Central and/or South America and for possessing over 17 kilograms of various controlled substances. Jason Hunter, 48, was sentenced on Jan...

LAREDO, Texas - Two people have been ordered to federal prison for their roles in a two-year, multimillion-dollar trade-based money laundering conspiracy to move drug trafficking proceeds through Texas to Mexico. Mauricio Anzures-Zarate, 53, Mexico City, Mexico, and Beatriz Salcedo-Carreon, 63, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, pleaded guilty April 15, 2024, and...

BOSTON – A Colombian man has been sentenced in federal court in Boston for his involvement in a sophisticated international money laundering organization that laundered more than $6 million in drug trafficking proceeds from Colombian cartels through the United States, Caribbean and European banking systems. Jaime Humberto Mejia-Bencardino, 62, was...