Money laundering operation leads to prison for Florida couple

FLORIDA — A Tampa couple has been sentenced in a multimillion-dollar money laundering scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida has announced.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida (USAO), U.S. District Judge Mary S. Scriven has sentenced Virginia Garcia Moreta, 35, of Tampa, and Hector Rodriguez Mendez, 47, of Tampa, to 70 and 63 months in federal prison, respectively, for conspiring to commit money laundering.

As part of their sentences, the court also entered an order of forfeiture in the amount of $21,567,939, which represented the proceeds of the conspiracy. The couple had pleaded guilty on June 10, 2022.

According to court documents, Garcia Moreta and Rodriguez Mendez led a Tampa-based money laundering organization responsible for laundering more than $20 million in drug proceeds in over 400 transactions.

During the conspiracy, the couple reportedly received substantial amounts of drug proceeds, then gave bundles of cash with purchase instructions to people whom Rodriguez Mendez had recruited in order to purchase cashier’s checks.

The checks often listed as the remitter either a co-conspirator or a business registered in the co-conspirator’s name, the USAO said. Allegedly,  co-conspirators then often traveled to several banks in the same day to avoid suspicion.

The cashier’s checks were then reportedly given to other businesses and individuals involved in the conspiracy.

On June 18, 2019, troopers from the Florida Highway Patrol stopped Garcia Moreta while she was allegedly in possession of a bag containing cashier’s checks and receipts for cashier’s checks totaling more than $1 million.

In total, investigators said they identified $21,567,939 that was laundered in furtherance of the conspiracy. The defendants’ share of the proceeds for their role in the scheme was approximately three percent.

“The main motivation of these drug trafficking organizations is profit at the expense of the safety and health of our citizens. The actions of these individuals assisted the drug traffickers bringing this poison into our communities,” said DEA Miami Field Division Special Agent in Charge Deanne L. Reuter.

“This successful collaboration between the DEA Miami Field Division and our federal partners highlights the importance of financial investigations in the fight against narcotics trafficking in Florida.”

“The dirty cash from drug trafficking cannot legally be introduced into the commerce stream, so traffickers rely on money launderers to “clean it”,” said Brian Payne, IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge. “Those who launder drug proceeds are just as vile and culpable as the traffickers themselves, which is why today’s sentences properly hold the defendants responsible for their actions.”

This operation is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Florida Highway Patrol.