Willie Whitehurst, 45, of Houston, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal of the Southern District of Texas. In January and February 2013, Whitehurst and co-conspirators Enrique Morales, Fulton Smith and Anthony Foster pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. Another co-conspirator, Sarah Combs, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.
In August 2012, a federal grand jury in Houston indicted the five defendants for their parts in a large “Black Market Peso Exchange” scheme. From October 2009 to September 2011, the defendants placed U.S. currency gained through the sale of drugs in U.S. cities into bank accounts held in the names of the organization’s “shell” companies. The money was then transferred to different accounts in the U.S. and in Mexico. In exchange, pesos were transferred back to accounts owned by the organization’s clients.
DOJ press release link: click here
Additional news link: Houston man gets 12 years for money laundering