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Edwin Deleon-Batista, 36, worked with others to convert cash from drug dealers into cashier's checks at local banks in states including New York and New Jersey, with the checks payable to people with ties to the drug dealing organizations, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. For a year beginning in March 2018, he obtained checks worth more than $13 million, earning a 1 percent fee on the transactions.
Following his arrest earlier this year, Deleon-Batista kept laundering money, this time using a fraudulent Florida driver's license with his picture but under another person's name and address. Over the next five months, he converted an additional $10 million into cashier's checks at banks in New York, New Jersey and Florida, according to authorities.
Along with money laundering, he was also charged with identity theft. He faces a total of 35 years in prison on both charges and hundreds of thousands in fines if he's convicted.
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