Federal officials stated that a Belize man was sentenced Tuesday to ten years in prison and ordered to forfeit $6 million for conspiracy to commit money laundering.
He laundered millions of dollars of drug proceeds for international drug trafficking organizations, according to authorities.
According to court documents, from 2014 to 2020, Jianxing Chen, 42, of Belize City, Belize, led and controlled a network of couriers.
They transported cash generated by the sale of cocaine throughout the United States – including Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and Atlanta – from those locations to New York City.
From there, the cash was laundered through various methods until the cash went back to drug trafficking organizations in Latin America, including Mexico.
Chen received “contracts” to transport and launder this money through co-conspirators who were prosecuted and convicted based on the same superseding indictment.
Chen coordinated the laundering of multimillion-dollar quantities of drug proceeds from Latin American drug trafficking organizations, including organizations based in Mexico, into the hands of Chinese nationals, who subsequently engaged in a sophisticated scheme to covertly launder the drug money into mainland China, mainly circumventing the U.S. financial system.
Chen pleaded guilty on May 23. In October 2021, co-defendant Xizhi Li was sentenced to 15 years for leading the conspiracy to launder tens of millions of dollars for foreign drug trafficking organizations.
Li signed a consent order of forfeiture for $10 million to the United States as part of his plea.
The DEA Louisville Division and the DEA’s Special Operations Division, Bilateral Investigations Unit, investigated the case.
Deputy Chief Mary K. Daly and Chief Stephen Sola of the Justice Department’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, Money Laundering and Forfeiture Unit, former Assistant U.S. Attorneys David A. Peters and Rachael C. Tucker and Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Aminoff for the Eastern District of Virginia prosecuted the case.
This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations threatening the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach.
Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at www.justice.gov/OCDETF.