US charges man in Mexican cartel money trail

Washington, Aug 26 (IANS) A Mexican national working for a money-transfer business in Minnesota has been charged with helping launder at least $750,000 in alleged drug proceeds for one of Mexico’s most powerful cartels, the US Justice Department said.

Christopher A. Bravo Marin, 46, of Minneapolis, allegedly used his knowledge of his employer’s compliance procedures to evade anti-money-laundering controls and transfer money to leaders of the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, or CJNG, in Mexico.

A federal grand jury in Minnesota returned the indictment on August 20. Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested Bravo on Monday, and he appeared before a US magistrate judge in Minneapolis on Tuesday.

“The indictment alleges that this defendant abused his position at a financial institution to help the CJNG cartel launder money from its drug sales back to Mexico,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said.

The alleged conspiracy operated from at least February 2023 until February 2026, according to the Department of Justice.

During that period, Bravo allegedly worked with members of a CJNG drug-distribution cell operating in Minnesota. He is accused of processing the group’s illicit proceeds through the money-transfer company where he was employed.

Prosecutors alleged that Bravo divided the money into several transfers, with each transaction kept just below $1,000.

That amount was significant because $1,000 was the company’s threshold for collecting and verifying a customer’s identification document, the department said.

Bravo allegedly created fictitious Hispanic names for the people sending the money. He then transferred the funds to straw beneficiaries in Mexico whose names were provided by cartel members.

After processing each transaction, Bravo allegedly forged the purported sender’s signature on the payment-confirmation receipt. He then sent screenshots of the receipts to his alleged co-conspirators so the money could be collected in Mexico.

Cartel members allegedly paid Bravo between $40 and $50 for each transfer he processed.

“Cartels rely on financial facilitators to ensure that cartel leadership in Mexico receive the profits from the heinous crimes they perpetrate here in the United States,” Duva said.

“The Criminal Division is relentless in its mission to take the profit out of crime, including by prosecuting those who help funnel drug proceeds back to cartel management,” he added.

US Attorney Daniel N. Rosen for the District of Minnesota said the defendant allegedly helped strengthen the cartel’s criminal infrastructure by transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug proceeds.

Bravo has been charged with one count of conspiracy to engage in money laundering. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

–IANS

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