Florida-Based Electronics Exporter Pleads Guilty to Laundering Narcotics Money
Marcelo Irigoin, of Hialeah, Florida, owner of an unnamed electronics exporter, pleaded guilty to money laundering proceeds from the illegal sale of narcotics through the Black Market Peso Exchange, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced. Irigoin shuffled over $1.4 million through the peso exchange -- a market through which narcotics proceeds are bought and sold then shipped overseas through shell companies and "mirrored transactions," the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
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Starting in June 2020, Irigoin received the narcotics proceeds in accounts held by the Florida-based exporting company from a third party. The U.S. Attorney's Office said these payments "contained significant red flags consistent with money-laundering activity," including amounts that didn't line up to the actual amount of the electronics the customer had bought and payments broken up into smaller wire transfers over the course of one or more days. The third parties making the actual payments in these transactions were shell companies that collected the narcotic proceeds in the U.S. then sent them to Irigoin's business, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Due to the guilty plea, Irigoin agreed to forfeit over $1.4 million, including over $600,000 the government previously seized from various company accounts. The defendant faces a maximum of 20 years in prison. “Marcelo Irigoin not only helped launder over one million dollars in drug proceeds through the Black Market Peso Exchange, he also tried to cover his tracks after he learned about the Government’s investigation," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said. "The Black Market Peso Exchange relies on so-called clean money from businesses like Irigoin’s to launder drug proceeds back to cartels overseas. Today’s guilty plea reflects this Office’s commitment to investigate and prosecute businesses and individuals who make their seemingly legitimate businesses available to facilitate these illegal transactions.” Sentencing is set for Sept. 13.