A Colombian national has been sentenced to more than 13 years in prison for running an international cryptocurrency money-laundering scheme built on drug-trafficking proceeds, federal prosecutors announced. The case adds to a growing list of U.S. prosecutions targeting the use of digital currency to move narcotics cash across borders.
The sentence was announced in a post from the US Attorney SDNY
, the office representing the Southern District of New York. U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald credited the outcome to investigators and prosecutors who worked the case, saying, “Thanks to the diligence of our law enforcement partners and the career prosecutors of this Office, the defendants have now been held accountable.” Beyond the sentence length and the nature of the scheme, specific details of the case — including the defendant's identity and the exact circumstances of the laundering operation — were not included in the announcement.
A Pattern of Crypto-Fueled Drug Money Cases
This sentencing arrives amid a wave of similar prosecutions nationwide. In a separate case, Colombian national Nilson Sneyder Vasquez Duarte, alias “Sobri,” and roughly a dozen associates allegedly laundered tens of millions of dollars in South Florida drug money between 2020 and 2024, routing cryptocurrency to trafficking groups in Mexico and Colombia, according to InSight Crime.
Other recent cases underscore the same trend. The outlet also reported that a Mexican broker known as “Meño” was sentenced in 2025 to eight years in prison for laundering $5.4 million in cryptocurrency for the CJNG cartel through networks spanning 13 U.S. cities. And according to TRM Labs, Las Vegas resident Martin Mizrahi was convicted in January 2024 of laundering more than $4 million in cartel proceeds using cryptocurrency and multiple digital wallets.
Guilty Pleas Keep Piling Up
Just weeks before this sentencing, Mexican national Carlos Erick Vazquez Gonzalez pleaded guilty to laundering roughly $4 million in drug-trafficking proceeds in the United States and returning the money to Mexico through cryptocurrency, per the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ said Vazquez Gonzalez accepted the narcotics proceeds into a cryptocurrency wallet under his control, quickly moved the funds to conceal their origin, sold the crypto for U.S. dollars in Mexico, and returned most of the cash to a broker.
A similar case involved Mexican national Daniel Gordiano Valenzuela, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder more than $1.9 million in drug proceeds collected in the United States and sent back to Mexico via cryptocurrency or wire transfers, according to The Washington Times.
Why Crypto Has Become a Favored Tool
Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs has documented why digital currency has become attractive to traffickers: its ability to enable rapid, cross-border, and pseudonymous financial transactions makes it increasingly useful to transnational criminal organizations, including Mexican drug cartels, according to TRM Labs. The firm found that in 2024, 97% of more than 120 Chinese precursor chemical manufacturers it studied across 26 cities and 16 provinces offered payment in cryptocurrency.
The scale of the problem has grown sharply. Illicit cryptocurrency inflows quadrupled after 2020 to an estimated $40 billion to $51 billion in 2024, according to Chainalysis data cited by InSight Crime. A FinCEN notice says CVC kiosks may be used as an alternative to bulk cash smuggling.
The identity of the defendant sentenced this week, along with the precise sum involved, the transaction details, and any co-defendants, was not disclosed in the announcement from the U.S. Attorney's office. Those specifics remain unconfirmed as of publication.
