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Julio De La Cruz Acosta, 42, accepted the cash to buy 67 cashier’s checks at banks in and around New Jersey and elsewhere, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
He was one of a half-dozen residents from the area accused of laundering more than $27 million for the cartels, Sellinger said.
Morristown police helped the DEA and IRS crack the case, in which the defendants and other conspirators converted cash from drug sales in the two states to more than 1,000 cashier’s checks that were sent to brokers “acting on behalf of drug trafficking organizations with ties to the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and elsewhere,” according to a complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Newark.
The scheme was "designed to conceal the nature, source, ownership, and control of the illegal drug proceeds in order to avoid scrutiny by law enforcement and banking institutions,” Sellinger said.
The defendants typically received from $150 to $200 for each check they bought, authorities said.
Charged with conspiracy and illegal money transmitting, De La Cruz Acosta took a deal from the government rather than face a trial. He pleaded guilty Friday via videoconference with a federal judge in Newark to aiding and abetting an illegal money transmitting business.
U.S. District Judge Brian R. Martinotti scheduled sentencing for May 22.
Sellinger credited special agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey Division, special agents and task force officers of IRS - Criminal Investigation and Morristown police with the investigation that led to the guilty plea, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan M. Peck of his Asset Recovery and Money Laundering Unit in Newark.
Sellinger also cited the work of the Direccion Nacional de Control de Drogas (the Dominican Republic National Drug Directorate, or DNCD) in helping make the case.
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