International Money Broker Sentenced To 92 Months In Prison

Luis Anibal Salazar Garcia, the primary money broker for a Colombian-based international money laundering organization, was sentenced today to 92 months in prison at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn. Ten co-defendants were sentenced last month to sentences ranging from 28 to 64 months’ imprisonment. Two other co-defendants remain to be sentenced. All 13 defendants, who were extradited from Colombia, pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder narcotics proceeds. Together, the defendants were responsible for laundering tens of millions of dollars of narcotics proceeds from the United States to Colombia between 2006 and 2013 on behalf of Colombian drug cartels.

The sentences were announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and James T. Hayes, Jr., Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), New York. The sentence was imposed by Chief United States District Court Judge Carol B. Amon.

“Salazar Garcia and his cohorts in crime operated a sophisticated network of shipments and transfers that went to the heart of the deadly narcotics trade – the money. The defendants’ money laundering activities allowed narcotics traffickers in Colombia to reap enormous profits from sending drugs to the United States,” stated United States Attorney Lynch. “These sentences will send a message to narcotics traffickers that we are committed to shutting down their ability to profit from selling their illegal drugs in the United States.”

“The incarceration of this defendant and his cohorts disrupts a money laundering organization that contributed to the flow of millions of dollars in illicit drug proceeds,” said HSI New York Special Agent in Charge Hayes. “The prosecution of these money launderers is a testament to the expertise of the members of the El Dorado Task Force and our international law enforcement partners, whose investigative prowess enables them to find international criminals and bring them to justice.”

Salazar Garcia and his twelve co-defendants were money brokers operating out of the El Diamante, Gran Centro Commercial, San Andresito, and Atlantis retail shopping malls in Cali, Colombia, and assisted drug trafficking organizations in Colombia by laundering the proceeds of sales of narcotics in the United States. The defendants also oversaw a network of confederates who operated in the United States taking the proceeds from narcotics sales here and passing the money to others, who ultimately repatriated millions of dollars in drug proceeds to suppliers in Colombia. The drug money was transported in amounts ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars, often bundled and heat sealed, and concealed in vehicles, gasoline containers, duffel bags, and shoeboxes. Twenty-four of the U.S.-based confederates have also pleaded guilty to their participation in the money laundering conspiracy.

As part of this investigation, law enforcement officers have seized more than $6.5 million in United States currency as well as 52.5 kilograms of heroin, 32 kilograms of cocaine, 63 pounds of marijuana, eight vehicles, and three firearms.

The investigation was led by agents from the HSI New York Office’s El Dorado Task Force, comprising over 260 members from more than 55 law enforcement agencies in New York and New Jersey – including special agents, state and local police investigators, intelligence analysts, and federal prosecutors – with the assistance of the task force’s High Intensity Financial Crimes Area (HIFCA)/Intelligence Unit.

Ms. Lynch extended her grateful appreciation to HSI New York, the Colombian National Police, particularly the Investigative Directorate, and members of the HSI Transnational Criminal Investigations Unit, for their hard work and dedication throughout the investigation, and thanked the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs for its assistance in this investigation and prosecution.

The government’s case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Douglas M. Pravda and Tiana A. Demas.

The Defendants:

FABER ENRIQUE BERMUDEZ ARCINIEGAS

AGE: 35

HARBI CAICEDO

AGE: 51

ALEXANDER HENAO CHAMORRO

AGE: 37

EDWIN ARENAS CHAMORRO

AGE: 39

LUIS ANIBAL SALAZAR GARCIA

AGE: 51

JOSE LEONIDAS SALAZAR GARCIA

AGE: 55

JUAN CARLOS MEJIA GONZALEZ

AGE: 50

JAVIER ORLANDO ALVAREZ JARAMILLO

AGE: 51

JOSE LISANDRO ABADIA JIMENEZ

AGE: 60

JUAN FERNANDO MOLINA JIMENEZ

AGE: 56

MANUEL ANTONIO CAMPO JIMENEZ

AGE: 53

OSCAR GARCIA LONDONO

AGE: 39

NUBIA ABADIA SARRIA

AGE: 35

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 12 CR 623