Owner of local Mexican market pleads guilty to money laundering

CINCINNATI – The owner of a local Mexican market pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court today to money laundering what she believed were narcotics proceeds. 

Teodora Meza, 52, of Cincinnati, owns and operates La Marketa, a specialty market on Fields Ertel Road in Cincinnati. Meza uses the store to act as an agent for an international money service business.

Meza admitted to sending what she believed were proceeds of drug trafficking via international wire transfers on behalf of clients.

According to her plea agreement, from October to December 2023, Meza sent wire transfers to Mexico on behalf of an individual claiming to be a drug trafficker. Meza educated the individual on how to conceal the transfers by structuring them to avoid reporting requirements. The defendant both accepted and provided false information and identities to conceal the nature and source of the funds.

In total, Meza laundered $20,000 from the individual throughout a series of wire transfers.

Kelly A. Norris, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Karen Wingerd, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation, announced the guilty plea entered today before Senior U.S. District Judge Susan J. Dlott. Assistant United States Attorney Ashley N. Brucato is representing the United States in this case.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).

# # #