Four Colombian men sentenced in drug money laundering scheme

WSBTV.com News Staff
·3 min read
4

Four men from Colombia have been sentenced for a drug money laundering scheme with more than $1 million involved.

Gilberto Lopez-Giraldo, Raul Lopez-Giraldo, Guillermo Escobar, and Alexander Duque-Casanova have been sentenced for participating in a more than $1.4 million drug money laundering conspiracy involving major cities from across the United States to Cali, Colombia.

“Illegal drug proceeds provide the critical lifeblood for drug traffickers,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. “Our office is committed to disrupting the ability of international drug cartels to profit from their illegal activities by seeking to evade law enforcement detection through money laundering operations conducted within the United States.”

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“These criminals thought their scheme would go undetected and they could profit from their criminal activities, but they were wrong,” said Special Agent in Charge Katrina W. Berger, who oversees Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) operations in Georgia and Alabama.

According to Buchanan, the men were members of a money laundering crew based in Colombia, who coordinated the collection of money from drug traffickers in cities across the United States, including Atlanta, Chicago, and New York.

The group laundered the money through a network of bank accounts in the United States and elsewhere, according to a news release.

The Department of Justice said the money from these accounts was used to purchase electronics and other goods in the United States and then resold on the black market in Colombia. The purpose of this scheme was to secretly convert the drug money collected in the United States into Colombian pesos for drug trafficking organizations, according to the news release.

During the investigation, the defendants and their co-conspirators orchestrated the collection of drug profits totaling about $1,496,817, according to the release.

During an undercover operation on November 21, 2012, investigators received $149,980 in U.S. currency from two conspirators who arrived in a truck in the parking lot of a store in Duluth, Georgia. The money was wrapped in bundles and hidden in a box inside a garbage bag. Agents conducting surveillance of the meeting followed the truck from the parking lot to a residence in Norcross, , which was later determined to be a methamphetamine conversion lab.

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The defendants were later indicted on five counts of money laundering in the Northern District of Georgia, and, with the cooperation of Colombian officials, arrested and extradited to the United States. On March 7, 2022, the defendants pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and received the following sentences:

• Gilberto Lopez-Giraldo, 51, of Cali, Colombia, has been sentenced to five years, 10 months in prison.

•Raul Lopez-Giraldo, 40, of Cali, Colombia, has been sentenced to five years in prison.

• Guillermo Escobar, a/k/a Memo, 54, of Cali, Colombia, has been sentenced to six years, six months in prison.

• Alexander Duque-Casanova, 48, of Cali, Colombia, has been sentenced to three years, 10 months in prison.

The Court adjusted the sentence of each defendant downward by 12 months from these terms of incarceration to account for the length of time the defendants spent in custody in Colombia, while awaiting extradition to the United States.

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