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Friday, July 30, 2021

Man Who Laundered Millions In Mexican Cartel Proceeds From Small SE Portland Store Gets 11 Years In Prison

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Operating out of a nondescript store off Southeast Portland’s busy Powell Boulevard, Jesus González Vazquez and another brother laundered millions of dollars in drug proceeds for Mexican drug cartel bosses between 2015 and 2019.

On Wednesday, González Vazquez, 37, was sent to prison for 11 years for his crimes in what prosecutors describe as one of the largest takedowns of a drug trafficking operation in Oregon history.

“If I were before the court and this was a mafia case ... I would say that this defendant before you was a made man,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Cardani told a judge.

“He was one that was the blood brother of the organization who was willing to do anything to help the objectives of the organization,” Cardani said.

Federal investigators, working with local police, set up covert pole cameras outside Tienda Mexicana González Bros. and intercepted phone calls through wiretaps starting in 2019.

They determined that González Vazquez was the main money launderer for two large drug traffickers working in four states in Mexico.

The store bearing his name sent at least $6.4 million of illegal drug proceeds to Mexico through wire transfers from November 2018 to early October 2019, the prosecutor and González Vazquez’s defense lawyer agreed in a negotiated plea deal.

But prosecutors believe he funneled much more over time: up to $19 million since 2015, according to government estimates.

“This defendant before you is the most significant defendant, whose actions were responsible for the success of the drug trafficking organization, certainly during the wiretap period but probably even before,” Cardani said. “He was the one that talked directly to the leaders in Mexico.’'

González Vazquez, of Jalisco, Mexico, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Gresham police initiated the investigation that led to the federal indictment of 42 people in October 2019 for their alleged roles in the international drug smuggling and money laundering conspiracy. Thirty-four of the 35 people who have been arrested in the case have entered guilty pleas.

Investigators identified the drug bosses in Mexico as Samuel Diaz and Faustino Monroy and said they organized and ran the operation, trafficking hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine and heroin into Oregon for sale.

At its peak, its Portland distribution cell sold up to 77 pounds of methamphetamine and 55 pounds of heroin weekly in and around the city, according to prosecutors.

“This sentence is a successful step towards removing the ability of the cartels to collect their profits from the poison they inject into our communities,” Robert Hammer, the Homeland Security Investigations agent in charge of Pacific Northwest operations, said in a statement.

While drug trafficking organizations can quickly replace the low-level couriers and dealers, “it’s much harder for these organizations to quickly replace savvy, large volume money launderers” like González Vazquez, said Scott Asphaug, Oregon’s acting U.S. attorney.

‘HARM TO SOCIETY’

Prosecutors and investigators said drug dealers would sell methamphetamine and heroin throughout Portland and typically collect between $10,000 and $30,000 a day.

They would then deliver the drug proceeds, investigators said, to the small market at Southeast 124th and Powell Boulevard.

The cartel bosses in Mexico would contact González Vazquez, tell him that a street-level dealer was about to deliver cash to the store and he’d accept the bags of money, according to investigators.

González Vazquez would count the money, confirm the deliveries to the traffickers in Mexico by phone or text message and then receive multiple fake names and locations from the drug bosses to send the wire transfers. He would text the drug bosses a copy of the wire transfers to alert them they were on their way.

González Vazquez would keep each wire transfer below $3,000 and used three different international wire transfer companies to avoid law enforcement scrutiny, investigators said.

He was paid 5% of each transfer -- $50 for every $1,000 he laundered -- as his commission, according to prosecutors.

During the 10-month period covered by the indictment, González Vazquez earned an estimated $315,000 in commissions, according to a government analyst.

The drug cartel bosses directed González Vazquez to make the money transfers to four Mexican states: Baja California Norte, Jalisco, Michoacan and Nayarit.

From January 2015 to early October 2019, González Vazquez and one of his brothers laundered $19 million in more than 18,000 wire transfers from the market, prosecutors contend.

Investigators reviewed the names of the “senders” or customers purportedly making the wire transfers that González Vazquez provided to the companies and found that none matched the addresses given, two addresses didn’t exist and one came back to a food cart in a different city. The name of one false sender -- Teodoro Beltan -- is the name of a small region in El Rosario, Sinaloa, Mexico, according to prosecutors.

González Vazquez’s lawyer, Per Olson, argued that prosecutors exaggerated his client’s role in the drug trafficking organization and urged a lesser sentence of six years in prison.

Olson described his client as a family man who came to the United States about a decade ago and was “basically a shopkeeper” who started to make some illicit wire transfers “and it got out of control.”

He stressed that González Vazquez, unlike other co-defendants, has no prior arrest or criminal history. He blamed González Vazquez’s amicable nature, how he “goes out of his way to do things for people,” for getting him into trouble.

The tienda also wasn’t his sole source of income, Olson said, noting he had done other work to support his wife and children, such as forest fire management, interior construction and car sales. He also had medical ailments resulting in hernia surgery from mid-2013 through the spring of 2015, Olson said.

U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon told González Vazquez that he was sentencing him to the higher end of the sentencing guidelines because he “caused a great deal of pain, hurt and suffering” to other people and their families.

“The punishment that you’re receiving for this crime is based upon the conduct that you have engaged in, and the harm to society that it has caused,” Simon said.

‘TOOK THOSE GUNS DOWN’

González Vazquez also worked to arrange the purchase of high-capacity rifles -- including AR-15 and AK-47 semi-automatic rifles -- to smuggle to Mexico. On April 27, 2019, federal agents stopped an Idaho gun seller who was hauling these eight rifles, three handguns and ammunition to Vazquez in Portland, according to prosecutors.

González Vazquez’s brother and co-defendant, Juan Antonio Romo, 46, worked in the operation but was more of a back-up and less active, prosecutors said. He has pleaded guilty to money laundering but has not been sentenced yet. Prosecutors will seek a four years and nine month prison term for Romo.

Case agents believe a third brother who owned the store -- a priest who was the only one of the three legally in the United States -- wasn’t actively involved in the crimes.

González Vazquez moved to Oregon around 2010 and began working with Romo at the González Bros. market, according to prosecutors.

The store was an authorized agent for three international money service businesses: Sigue Corp., Servicio UniTeller Inc. and Continental Exchange Solutions/Ria Financial, according to Rachel Royston, a fraud examiner with the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation who now works for the U.S. Attorney’s Office and assisted in the investigation.

Federal grand jury subpoenas were issued to all three for their records and transaction data relating to the Portland store from January 2015 through October 2019.

González Vazquez, prosecutors said, also was involved in an array of illegal side businesses, including working to arrange the purchase of high-capacity rifles -- including AR-15 and AK-47 semi-automatic rifles -- to smuggle to Mexico.

He set up the purchase of the rifles from an Idaho seller, who agreed to drive the guns to Portland. González Vazquez warned that the freeway to Portland was “full of cops,” according to court documents.

Federal agents intervened, stopping the Idaho seller en route and seizing eight rifles, three handguns and ammunition on April 27, 2019, the documents show.

“Law enforcement, jeopardizing the wiretap investigation, took those guns down,” Cardani said.

“The decision was made that it was just too dangerous too risky to let those guns” get to Portland, he told the court.

González Vazquez also helped a fugitive escape to Mexico, obtained false driver’s licenses for drug dealers and helped drug trafficking associates illegally enter the United States, Cardani said.

He’s the 20th defendant sentenced for his role in the operation. Fourteen others await sentencing and one is pending trial. Diaz, Monroy and several others remain fugitives.

Earlier this year, one of the leading drug dealers of the organization, Edgar Omar Quiroz Rodriguez, was sentenced to 19 years and seven months in prison. He was responsible for directing the distribution of enormous amounts of methamphetamine and heroin from Mexico into the Portland area.

In October 2019, investigators executed federal search warrants at more than a dozen places throughout the Portland area, seizing 22 pounds of methamphetamine, as well as quantities of heroin and cocaine and seven guns. 

Overall, law enforcement officers seized 51 guns, including assault rifles, shotguns, and handguns, from defendants affiliated with the Diaz-Monroy drug trafficking organization, according to prosecutors.

Investigators from Homeland Security Investigations worked with Gresham police, the FBI, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Oregon State Police, Portland police and the Multnomah, Clackamas, and Clark County Sheriff’s Offices on the case

Oregon Live

45 comments:

  1. I used to be a heroin addict. I first got addicted in Portland. Most dealers back then were from Nayarit. They always had screaming dope and were very professional/dependable. I had to leave Portland in order to get sober. A lot of drugs in that city!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That was BLO dope back then. Now CJNG. Seattle/Tacoma is the same, but bigger. All the left coast cities are identical. Only differences are size, weather, and which DTO has control. Glad you got off the dope. Most don't.

      Delete
    2. Saludos ElGrandeRojo

      Glad you are well. Drugs today are in abundance. Money exchanging hands at an epic rate due to consumption. Cheaper & m powerful enough to kill for those drug enthusiasts. A pity to see the magnitude of a failed drug war in the US. Along with many countries. The same country wreaking havoc is combating the same problems among its citizens.
      I applaud the dedicated law enforcement personel for their continued fight. Despite a drop in the bucket of what actully gets confiscated. The tireless efforts to maintain a sober society is a feat.
      Stay safe

      E42

      Delete
    3. @9:46 could have been the Xalisco boys, don't know if they were a small independent DTO or affiliated to another larger group. In the 90s HLPS held sway over Nayarit so it could have been a different number of groups just depends on the years of your addiction.

      Delete
    4. 9:46 everywhere y no cantes Victoria , tarde KE temprano recaes a eza mierda.

      Delete
  2. I hope he stashed money somewhere.

    Corey Feldman

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. People like this make a lot but spend a lot too man.

      Delete
    2. People like this make a lot but spend a lot too man.

      Delete
    3. A money launderer? Someone paid to transfer money? I don’t think so @12:52

      Delete
  3. I wonder what DTO they were involved with...?

    -Holden D. Cash

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CJNG...PDX was BLO. This was Isidro's big hub, before the split with CDS. BLO had PDX, CDS had Seattle and Vancouver, BC. After the split with CDS, and the fracturing of BLO, the Nayarit and Guerrero guys in US are getting their dope from CJNG. Seattle/Vancouver is pretty mixed. Depending on gang affiliation, it's CDS or CJNG. I think CDS still is dominant in BC, so dope is coming from the north as well. The game changes quickly. A cell gets busted from one cartel, the other fills the void, til they get busted, then it flips back. Neverending game. JMO

      Delete
    2. He was probably working under the tutelage of THE sicario 006.

      Delete
    3. Cds only supplies a small amt if any in Vancouver bc. The Chinese run most of the heroin trade out here. There are Persians who bring it in as well. But now it’s different cause all the dope is fentanyl. Which comes directly from China to the port of Vancouver. Only 20% is heroin on the street.

      Delete
    4. I'm gonna say that blo holds the most presence in Seattle pdx they have not broken up like people claim

      Delete
  4. This store front is the same pics with the Mexican women getting caught for money laundering a while back, I think borderlandbest reuses it’s pics.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The store is from the cited source.

      https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2021/07/man-who-laundered-millions-in-drug-proceeds-from-small-se-portland-store-to-mexico-gets-11-years-in-prison.html

      Which is the lady you're referring to?

      Delete
  5. He's affiliated with CJNG right?

    ReplyDelete
  6. How do you launder 19 milly and only make an estimated 315k gawddamn this guy might as well worked for free, talk about a high risk and low reward 🤦🏻‍♂️

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fo real, 5% of 19mil is 950K, standard is 10%.

      Delete
    2. You should learn to to read and properly comprehend.

      #NoSoyNadaSoyTourista

      Delete
    3. 10% the standard? In what the movies? Lol the Chinese were doing it for 1% there’s an article on BB. The risk is actually very low, no touching illegal products or risk of getting robbed/killed. He made the $315,000 in 10 months. Not a bad pay day if you ask me. This was the result of a rat

      Delete
  7. Should have a longer sentence. Illegally here and poisoning our country with meth. A scourge to our society. Deport the whole lot afterwards. And screw all who give excuse or support, losers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Make sure those corrupt american officals get sentenced too as well…

      Delete
    2. Now calculate how much a worker of the organization really makes? Majority of these individuals make anything at all but for a good attorney.
      The lack of common sense often baffles me.

      Delete
  8. 5% nice commission. Easy $$$$$.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Easy $$$$$ = Hard Time…. ⏰⏰⏰⏰⏰

      Delete
  9. Pretty interesting numbers…

    77lbs of meth and 55lbs of meth on a weekly basis??
    I didnt. Catch which org fhis belongs fi- im guessing cjng- either way, its always interesting seeing how much it takes to supply a city.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Such great reporting, as I have said before. I can actually follow your articles and totally get the picture. No BS no embellishments,but always very thorough. BB rocks.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Money laundering should not be labeled as a huge crime 6 months in jail should be the punishment and I see no crime in this case

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a huge crime because it's a cog in the machinations that lead to addiction, murders, beheadings, and disruption of lives in the most horrific manner. Look at it in a serious manner. It's not a game.

      Delete
    2. Should not be a crime, human smuggling is no longer a crime. Drugs should not be a crime anymore. We now have open borders.

      Delete
  12. You people are morons. Seriously. Get tested for retardation and/or brain damage.

    Pissed Kathi

    ReplyDelete
  13. US business is infested with corruption. It’s simply disgusting and mind boggling how nothing in the US ever changes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, the US should be more like Mexico, right?

      Stupid.

      Delete
  14. It's funny how we very rarely hear about top level bankers going to jail for money laundering, when they get caught the government (political machine) allows them to use the bank's money to pay a fine and all's good so they can start laundering again. When it comes to a little guy laundering money the politicians know they're not going to get their cut so they go after them all guns blazing. We live in a sick world and we're getting very close to the shit hitting the fan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Money talks & bullshit walks.
      One of many privileges of having money. Pretty sure campaign donations helps these individuals remain free and untouchable.
      Look around you. It's Visibly clear.

      Delete
    2. I can't wait 'til shit finally hits the fan cause I'm tired of being in this f*cked up world 🤬😢

      Delete
  15. No such thing as easy money in this world, especially not in the drug world… it’s tainted with blood and it’s a magnetic to negative outcomes, regardless of the proximity of things/family

    ReplyDelete
  16. Y EZAZ compañias de transferencias no cometen crimen for mandar eze dinero? Yo kreo KE juegan El papel muy inportante en lavado de billeted.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Meth is here to stay. Cheap and very available.

    ReplyDelete

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