An airplane seized as part of the investigation into Vicente Contreras Amezquita.
(Courtesy of U.S. Attorney's Office)
On December 19, 2011, $248,820 cash was seized as part of the investigation into Vicente Contreras Amezquita and his money-laundering ring.
(Courtesy of U.S. Attorney's Office)
Those who contracted with Vicente Contreras Amezquita for his unique services not only had their illegal profits laundered, but they got an airplane in return — presumably to traffic more drugs and earn more dirty money.
For his role as head of a Chula Vista-based money laundering organization, a San Diego federal judge on Wednesday sentenced Contreras to five years in prison.
The scheme moved $3.6 million over a five-year period, from 2007 to 2012, with the money split into 525 cash deposits to buy 35 small planes and plane parts for exportation to Mexico, according to court documents.
The bulk of the planes were Cessna 206 and 201 models — reliable, fast and able to carry heavy payloads, the kind of aircraft favored by drug-trafficking organizations, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri Hobson.
Some of the planes were outfitted with heavy-duty tires and landing gear for clandestine airstrips, or extra fuel tanks for long flights, Hobson said.
Contreras, 46, grew up in Sinaloa, Mexico and later moved with his mother and siblings to Tijuana, according to court documents. In 1998 he moved to Chula Vista with his wife and their children, who are U.S. citizens. Contreras had a visa that allowed him to legally cross the border but not to live in the U.S., prosecutors said.
He started his legitimate business out of his dining room, buying and selling airplane parts, and later got his pilot’s license and began refurbishing whole planes and also brokering sales, said his defense attorney, Frank Ragen.
Prosecutors say as of 2007, at least, there doesn’t appear to be anything legitimate about the business.
A wiretap in 2011 and 2012 revealed Contreras would pick up cash in bulk in an alley in Los Angeles or in a fast food parking lot, according to prosecutors.
The money would then be divided up among his crew who would travel the country, making a flurry of deposits into multiple bank accounts under various names. The deposits would be “structured” in amounts under $10,000, therefore avoiding the mandatory reporting requirement by banks.
Alleged associates made deposits in California, Arizona, Texas, Michigan and Georgia, prosecutors said.
The money would then be transferred to other accounts, and later combined into yet different accounts, where it would be withdrawn for the purchase of an airplane through one of Contreras’ companies, Aeropartes Baja or Vekve Corporacion, the investigation showed.
Contreras himself used 46 different personal and business accounts at five banks, prosecutors said.
During the wiretap investigation, authorities seized a plane in Florida and $350,000 in cash.
Contreras pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to launder more than $10,000 of criminally derived property.
But whether Contreras knew the true source of that money was subject to intense debate in court.
“There is absolutely no evidence all this money came from drugs,” Ragen said, listing a host of other crimes in Mexico that also generate profits — from kidnapping to oil theft to human smuggling.
U.S. District Judge Michael Anello asked: “What other source could there be?” He later ruled that Contreras either knew or should have known about the true source of the funds and that there was “overwhelming circumstantial evidence he knew what was going on here.”
Contreras apologized to the court and his family in the front row: “None of this was done with any malice. I saw it as something like my daily work. I apologize if it was wrong. I’m remorseful and I’ve learned my lesson.”
Contreras’ wife, who is also charged in the scheme, remains in Mexico and has a warrant for her arrest, along with most of the other alleged accomplices, Hobson said.
Hector Hernandez, owner of Pacific Coast Aero in Torrance, was also arrested and has pleaded guilty.
Original article ➤ http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com
No comments:
Post a Comment