The owner of an Oakland money services business, Rincon Musical, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for laundering money for drug traffickers to Mexico, federal prosecutors announced. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office on March 19th, Felipe de Jesus Ornelas Mora, 51, plead guilty last October after being charged in August 2022 with conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Sentenced by Senior United States District Judge Jeffrey S. White, Ornelas Mora and his operation were uncovered following an investigation sparked by the discovery of wire receipts on the phones of nabbed drug dealers. Found on one dealer's phone, wire receipts indicated that over $109,000 had been sent to Mexico and Honduras from Rincon between August and December of 2020. Rincon employees, trained in anti-money laundering, made it look like the money was sent by unrelated customers, by using their names and IDs without their knowledge.
"This defendant knowingly aided Bay Area drug dealers by disguising drug money as remittances and laundering it through his business through wire payments to Mexico," said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick D. Robbins. The government's sentencing papers showed undercover operations conducted by federal agents, using two confidential witnesses to simulate wire transactions at Rincon, supporting the case against Ornelas Mora.
The convict admitted that he and his employees structured large cash amounts into multiple wire transfers below $3,000 - the threshold for mandatory customer reporting - to skirt federal laws. "Money and greed are the foundation of the cartel business model and Ornelas Mora provided a lifeline by laundering drug proceeds," DEA Special Agent in Charge Brian M. Clark told reporters, underscoring the pursuit against facilitators of criminal enterprises. Additionally, Judge White has mandated three years of supervised release for Ornelas Mora after his time behind bars.
This case is part of a wider crackdown by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force aiming to dismantle high-level criminal networks. The Task Force employs a unified approach, leveraging the strength of local and federal law enforcement. The successful prosecution of Ornelas Mora came with assistance from the IRS Criminal Investigation and the DEA, as well as local police. Assistant United States Attorney Daniel Pastor led the prosecution, with team support from Amanda Martinez and Andy Ding.
