A former business owner in Virginia has been sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to using that business to launder money for a dangerous Mexican cartel.
“Ana Bella Sanchez-Rios, the former owner and operator of a Martinsville business used to launder more than $4.3 million in profits for an international drug cartel, was sentenced last week in U.S. District Court to 96 months in federal prison,” according to a press release from the Western District of Virginia.
“Sanchez-Rios laundered the funds for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), a Mexican-based criminal organization considered by the Department of Justice to be one of the most dangerous transnational organizations in the world,” the press release said.
The money laundering operation was fairly complex, according to investigators.
Sanchez-Rios owned Bella’s Tortilla & Meat Market. Her role in the scheme was to collect the money from the cartel’s drug trafficking in the United States, launder it through her business, and send it to Mexico via wire transfer. In an attempt to remain off the radar of law enforcement, she wired the money in small batches, and sometimes made up names and addresses of fake senders.
The 48-year-old Sanchez-Rios was indicted alongside 12 members of the cartel itself in March of 2019. She was charged with money laundering, along with drug trafficking. In June of 2020, she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating a business that transmitted criminally derived funds.
“When individuals launder money for a drug cartel, they play critical [sic] role for the organization by concealing and transferring illegally-obtained funds, which perpetuates the cartel’s illegal activity and the scourge of the narcotics the cartel pedals,” Acting U.S. Attorney Bubar said in the release. “Money laundering investigations can be particularly difficult, and I’m proud of the hard work of our federal and state law enforcement partners in bringing Sanchez-Rios to justice.”
The CJNG is now known as one of the most ruthless cartels in Mexico. It has risen to be the major adversary of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, perhaps the most infamous organized crime syndicate in North America.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) worked with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in busting the crime syndicate.
– – –
Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
