United States Drug Enforcement Administration

BOSTON – A federal jury convicted a Boston man on March 30, 2023 for his role in a money laundering conspiracy.

Mark Anthony Figueroa, 49, was convicted following a three-day trial of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns scheduled sentencing for Aug. 16, 2023. Figueroa was indicted by a federal grand jury in November 2021.

Evidence at trial established that Figueroa used clandestine deliveries of cash to currency couriers to launder the proceeds of drug trafficking on behalf of Mexican drug cartels. Between February 2019 and May 2020, Figueroa conducted or attempted to conduct six money laundering transactions totaling more than $580,000 in cash. Once the couriers received the laundered cash from Figueroa, the organization Figueroa was working with transferred the funds via the U.S. banking system to Mexican accounts and exchange it for pesos which could be used by cartels to pay for narcotics sold in the United States.

The charging statute provides a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $500,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Brian D. Boyle, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Field Division; and Michael J. Krol, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Leah B. Foley, Deputy Chief of Rollins’ Narcotics and Money Laundering Unit and Evan D. Panich of Rollins’ Narcotics and Money Laundering Unit are prosecuting the case. 

This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.