HOUSTON — A 40-year-old Mexican national who oversaw an international money laundering network for the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel was convicted Sept. 4 of drug trafficking and money laundering offenses following an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces investigation conducted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Houston with assistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration and IRS Criminal Investigation.
Victor Miguel Curiel Valadez pleaded guilty Sept. 4 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to conspiring to launder monetary instruments and possession with intent to distribute more than 500 grams of methamphetamines.
“For years, this individual oversaw an international money laundering network for one of the largest and most violent drug cartels in Mexico,” said HSI Houston Special Agent in Charge Mark Dawson. “His efforts directly helped to funnel more than $1.5 million in illicit drug trafficking proceeds from the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in Mexico where they could be used to expand their drug trafficking operations and fund extreme violence to silence anyone who opposed them. Working in conjunction with our federal partners, we were able to dismantle his money laundering network and cut off a significant source of funding being used by the CNJG to bring addiction, death and despair to beleaguered communities across the globe.”
Members and associates of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel hired Valadez to retrieve drug proceeds in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia. From 2016 to 2019, Valadez recruited others in Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, Kansas City and other cities in the United States to pick up the drug proceeds. He then coordinated the transfer of those proceeds back to Mexico through financial institutions. In total, Valadez and his co-conspirators laundered more than $1.5 million in drug proceeds during the course of the conspiracy.
Valadez also admitted that he negotiated and coordinated the distribution of 3 kilograms of methamphetamines to an individual in Houston in February 2018.
Sentencing is set for Nov. 20. At that time, Valadez faces up to life in federal prison and a possible $10 million fine for the drug conviction. He also faces up to 20 years and a $500,000 fine or twice the value of the property involved in the transaction, whichever is greater, for the money laundering conspiracy.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Anibal J. Alaniz and Casey N. MacDonald are prosecuting the case.
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