FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT

AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC at 410-209-4885  

October 16, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                  

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/md                                       

COLOMBIAN WOMAN SENTENCED TO 37 MONTHS
FOR MONEY LAUNDERING CONSPIRACY

Caused Wire Transfers of Over $3.5 Million in Cocaine and Heroin Proceeds

Baltimore, Maryland - Bertha Yolanda Paez, age 56, of Colombia, South America, was sentenced today to 37 months in prison followed by 2 years of supervised release for money laundering conspiracy, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.

According to the statement of facts presented to the court on July 26, 2006 at her guilty plea, Paez was part of a group that from January 1, 1996 to April 1999 laundered over $3.5 million in cash proceeds of cocaine and heroin trafficking from the United States to bank accounts outside the United States. During the investigation of this case, in June 1998, Paez and her group delivered $249,970 in cash to ICE undercover officers in Queens, New York, who deposited the cash in an ICE undercover bank account. Paez and her group directed, through a secret code, that these funds be sent to a specific bank account in the Cayman Islands.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Baltimore City Police for their investigative work, and commended Assistant United States Attorney Richard C. Kay, who prosecuted the case.

This page last modified—October 16, 2006