Florida man found with $1 million cash during traffic stop sentenced to prison

FLORIDA — An Orlando man has been sentenced to over six years for money laundering conspiracy after being stopped while transporting over $1 million in cash, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has announced.

Senior U.S. District Judge Susan C. Bucklew has sentenced Jason Pagan-Reyes, 40, of Orlando, to six years and six months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering. Pagan-Reyes had pleaded guilty on June 21, 2022, and is currently serving a drug-related state prison sentence, the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) said.

According to court documents, Pagan-Reyes was part of a conspiracy to deliver $1 million in drug proceeds to a money laundering organization that would launder the money back to the Dominican Republic. Pagan-Reyes was in contact with a courier for that organization who was, in reality, an undercover officer.

On July 11, 2020, while driving to meet with the undercover officer, a trooper from the Florida Highway Patrol stopped Pagan-Reyes’s minivan in Polk County for a variety of traffic offenses. After a police dog allegedly alerted to the odor of narcotics in the vehicle, law enforcement said they recovered $1,000,495 in two large bags.

A search of Pagan-Reyes’s cellphone revealed communications consistent with both drug trafficking and money laundering, the USAO said.