One of the leaders of an organization that laundered more than $20 million through “shell” business bank accounts pleaded guilty today in federal court in Houston, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson of the Southern District of Texas.
Enrique Morales, 42, of Houston and Guadalajara, Mexico, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal in the Southern District of Texas to conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.
In August 2012, a federal grand jury in Houston indicted Morales and four of his co-defendants for their roles in operating a money transmitting business that provided professional money laundering services to narcotics traffickers as part of a scheme commonly referred to as “the Black Market Peso Exchange.” According to the indictment, from October 2009 to September 2011, the defendants placed U.S. currency obtained through the sale of drugs in the U.S. into bank accounts held in the name of shell companies, which were owned and operated by the defendants. The money was then transferred to different accounts in the U.S. and Mexico. In exchange, pesos were transferred to bank accounts owned by the defendants’ clients.
DOJ press release link: click here