A Mexican national this week was convicted of funneling drug profits through Ohio banks to a cartel in Mexico.
“Susana Ramirez Orozco pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit money laundering in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles,” according to cleveland.com. “She served as a financial conduit between large-scale drug peddlers and the banks.”
Ramirez Orozco could be sentenced to up to five years in jail. Her sentencing is scheduled for March 14.
She worked for Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), one of the most violent and rapidly growing cartels in Mexico, and was busted in a sting operation in 2020. An informant introduced her to a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent who claimed to be a money broker for the cartel. Ramirez Orozco worked with that DEA agent and others to pick up drug proceeds and ship them to Mexico.
“At one point, Ramirez Orozco offered the agent work collecting and funneling as much as $400,000 a month to Mexican banks, the affidavit says,” according to the report. “The agent would have received a 5% commission.”
Before her arrest, she discussed setting up a warehouse in Cleveland to store drugs and cash.
Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, formerly known as Los Mata Zetas, has been responsible for horrific crimes just south of the U.S. border with Mexico.
It primarily deals in the trafficking of methamphetamine and cocaine.
In April of 2012, the group allegedly murdered 14 men whose remains were chopped up and put into plastic bags, then left inside a vehicle in Tamaulipas.
A month later, the organization allegedly killed 18 people outside of a U.S. retiree community in Jalisco. Again, the bodies were dismembered.
The group has been known to initiate new gang members by forcing them to cannibalize its victims.
It has also been accused of killing at least one Mexican police chief and a Mexican judge.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “DEA Agent” by DEA.Â
