Cohoes Man Sentenced to 70 Months on Marijuana and Money Laundering Convictions

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Jeremey VanWormer, age 32, of Cohoes, New York, formerly of Selkirk, New York, was sentenced today to 70 months in prison for conspiring to transport more than 100 kilograms of marijuana across the country, from California to New York, and conspiring to launder more than $650,000 in drug proceeds.

The announcement was made by United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith and Joseph Cronin, Inspector in Charge, United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Boston Division.

Senior United States District Judge Lawrence E. Kahn also ordered VanWormer to pay a $20,000 fine, and to forfeit $100,000 in drug trafficking proceeds and a commercial vehicle.  Judge Kahn also imposed an 8-year term of supervised release, to begin after VanWormer is released from prison.

As part of his guilty plea, VanWormer admitted that a California-based co-conspirator purchased marijuana from growers in California, and mailed packages containing marijuana to addresses that were supplied by VanWormer. These addresses corresponded to residences in Watervliet, Kingston, Troy, Menands and Niskayuna, and were residences that either VanWormer owned at the time or were residences of people whom he knew.

VanWormer and the California-based co-conspirator used the proceeds of marijuana sales to purchase additional marijuana from California.  In order to send the marijuana sale proceeds from New York to the co-conspirator in California, VanWormer asked friends and acquaintances to open accounts at Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase.  These accounts received more than $650,000 deposited at bank branches in the Northern District of New York, which the co-conspirator withdrew in California and used principally to purchase marijuana that was then mailed to the residential addresses that VanWormer provided.

This case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service, Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, with assistance from the Colonie and Bethlehem Police Departments, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett.