Colombian Money Broker Sentenced to Nearly a Decade in Prison for Role in International Money Laundering Conspiracy

BOSTON – A Colombian man was sentenced today 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 sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns to 115 months in prison. On Dec. 11, 2024, Mejia-Bencardino pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering conspiracy and 16 counts of laundering of monetary instruments. He was extradited at the request of the United States to face the charges in this case and is subject to deportation upon completion of the sentence imposed.

Mejia-Bencardino was among 20 individuals from Colombia, Jamaica and Florida who were indicted by a federal grand jury in May 2022 in connection with the money laundering conspiracy.

Over the course of the investigation, $1 million was seized from corporate bank accounts and other investigative activity. Nearly 3,000 kilograms of cocaine – with a street value of over $90 million – was traced back to the money laundering organization. This includes approximately 1,193 kilograms of cocaine seized at sea, 60 miles south of Jamaica, in July 2019, as well as 1,555 kilograms of cocaine seized in nine scrap metal shipping containers at the Port of Buenaventura, Colombia, in March 2019.

In or about October 2016, law enforcement began an investigation into a sophisticated money laundering organization located primarily in Barranquilla, Colombia. During an extensive five-year investigation, the organization laundered over $6 million in drug proceeds through intermediary banks in the United States, including banks in Massachusetts, as well as additional proceeds through banks in the Caribbean and Europe by use of the Colombian Black Market Peso Exchange (BMPE). By using the BMPE, the defendants and their co-conspirators sought to conceal drug trafficking activity and proceeds from law enforcement as well as evade currency exchange requirements in the United States and Colombia through the illegal currency exchange process. As part of the conspiracy, members of the organization held roles and responsibilities relative to the needs and opportunities of the scheme, such as drug suppliers, peso brokers, money couriers and business owners/dollar purchasers.

Through the BMPE, Colombian drug trafficking organizations with drug proceeds generated in the United States use third parties – generally referred to as “peso brokers” that are also based in Colombia – who agree to exchange Colombian pesos they control for the drug supplier’s dollar proceeds. Peso brokers then use money couriers in the United States and elsewhere to physically secure the drug proceeds, often in suitcases or bags on the street, and transfer the proceeds into the United States banking system. To avoid detection, peso brokers deposit the drug proceeds into bank accounts in company or individual names intended to appear as legitimate business activity, or through multiple small deposits into different bank accounts which are then consolidated into larger accounts. As a result, Colombian peso brokers control a pool of drug-derived proceeds in United States bank accounts. These dollar proceeds are then purchased by individuals or companies in Colombia seeking to exchange pesos for United States dollars at a favorable exchange rate and in a manner that avoids currency exchange and income reporting requirements. The dollar drug proceeds are transferred at the direction of the purchaser, and often end up in bank accounts of individuals or companies who appear to have no direct involvement in drug trafficking crimes.

Beginning in 2016 and continuing until 2022, an undercover agent infiltrated the organization by portraying himself as an international money launderer able to pick up bulk cash throughout the world, launder the proceeds through his United States-based accounts and send the money to Colombia through the BMPE.

Throughout the course of the investigation, members of the money laundering organization would contact the undercover and arrange meetings for the undercover and the undercover’s purported associates to collect bulk cash throughout the world. Money brokers, such as Mejia-Bencardino, would negotiate the money laundering contract by hiring a money launderer to pick up the bulk cash drug proceeds throughout the world, and would then direct where the money was to be sent to various accounts in order to conceal the nature of the funds and facilitate the payout of the laundered proceeds in Colombia for the benefit of the drug suppliers. Over the course of the conspiracy, Mejia-Bencardino was personally responsible for the laundering of over $1.95 million in drug proceeds.

Mejia-Bencardino is the 11th defendant to be sentenced in this case. All but one remaining defendant has been convicted.

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Stephen Belleau, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Field Division; Thomas Demeo, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Boston Field Office; Aura Liliana Trujillo Rojas, Delegate for Criminal Finance for the Colombian Attorney General’s Office; Ricardo Sánchez Silvestre, Brigadier General of the Colombian National Police Anti-Narcotics Directorate; Jervis Moore, Chief of the Narcotics Division for the Jamaica Constabulary Force; and Colonel Geoffrey Noble of the Massachusetts State Police made the announcement. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section’s Office of the Judicial Attaché in Bogotá, Colombia provided significant assistance in securing the arrests and extraditions of Cover, Rowe and other co-defendants from Colombia and Jamaica. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jared C. Dolan and Alathea E. Porter of the Criminal Division 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.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The remaining defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.