February 7, 2008
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/February/08_crm_095.html
Benedict P. Kuehne, Two Others, Indicted on Money Laundering Charges
WASHINGTON - A federal grand jury in Miami has charged three individuals with federal money laundering charges, obstruction of justice and forfeiture allegations, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division announced today.
The defendants are Benedict P. Kuehne, a Miami-based attorney, Gloria Florez Velez, an accountant from Medellin, Colombia, and Oscar Saldarriaga Ochoa, an attorney based in Medellin, Colombia.
All of the defendants are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, four counts of concealment money laundering, and one count of obstruction of justice. The indictment also seeks forfeiture in excess of $5 million. If convicted, the defendants face a maximum period of 20 years incarceration and a $250,000 fine, in addition to the criminal forfeiture.
As alleged in the indictment, Fabio Ochoa Vazquez (hereinafter “Ochoa”) was one of the world’s largest cocaine traffickers and a leader of the Medellin Cartel. In September 2001, Ochoa was extradited from Colombia to stand trial in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida for conspiring to distribute cocaine in the United States and elsewhere. He was charged with smuggling approximately 30 tons of powder cocaine per month into the United States between 1997 and 1999, and ultimately convicted of those offenses in May 2003.
Ochoa’s criminal defense attorneys retained defendant Kuehne to investigate the source of the funds Ochoa intended to use to pay his attorneys’ fees and to ensure that the funds were not proceeds, or commingled with proceeds, from Ochoa’s drug trafficking activities. From 2001 until 2003, defendant Kuehne purportedly conducted a due diligence investigation, with the assistance of defendant Saldarriaga, who was working out of the office of Ochoa’s criminal defense attorneys in Miami, and defendant Florez, Ochoa’s personal accountant based in Colombia.
The indictment alleges that defendants Kuehne, Florez and Saldarriaga knew that the funds used by Ochoa consisted of, or were at least commingled with, proceeds of drug trafficking and that the defendants conspired to, and did in fact, conceal such information. The indictment alleges that Kuehne drafted six opinion letters falsely advising Ochoa’s legal defense team that he had conducted a thorough and independent investigation into the source of funds. Through these opinion letters, defendant Kuehne advised Ochoa’s criminal defense team that the funds Ochoa used to pay his attorneys fees were free from any taint of illegal activity, did not represent the proceeds of criminal conduct, and were not commingled with proceeds of drug trafficking. Thereafter, Florez, Kuehne and Saldarriaga made four outgoing wire transfers, totaling $5,239,653.67 from Kuehne’s attorney trust account to Ochoa’s legal defense team, representing payments by Ochoa for his legal fees and expenses.
Assistant Attorney General Fisher was joined in today’s announcement by Eileen C. Mayer, Chief, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Criminal Investigation Division; Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Anthony V. Mangione, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); Amos Rojas, Special Agent in Charge, Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE); and Maria Del Pilar Hurtado, Director, Colombia Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS). Assistant Attorney General Fisher commended the investigative efforts of all the cooperating agencies. The case is being prosecuted by the Criminal Division’s Senior Trial Attorney John W. Sellers and Trial Attorney Thomas J. Pinder.
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08-095
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/states/newsrel/nyc020808.html
Drug Kingpin Convicted Of Running Heroin Organization
In The Bronx And Queens
FEB 8 — (Manhattan, NY) JOHN P. GILBRIDE, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Office of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (”DEA”) and MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that JOSE RODRIGUEZ NIEVES, a/k/a “Menor,” a/k/a “Cuba,” was found guilty late yesterday of charges related to his leadership of a highly lucrative drug organization responsible for distributing hundreds of kilograms of heroin in the Bronx from 1995 to January 2005. The trial took place before the Honorable Loretta A. Preska and a jury.
DEA Special Agent in Charge JOHN P. GILBRIDE stated, “Throughout this operation the DEA and our law enforcement partners identified an organization responsible for importing, packaging and distributing thousands of bags of heroin to be distributed in New York. All those responsible have been placed under arrest and today the leader of the drug organization has been convicted by members of the same community he was poisoning with heroin.”
According to the evidence at trial: RODRIGUEZ was the principal organizer, leader, and administrator of a drug organization that obtained hundreds of kilograms of heroin from Colombian suppliers in Queens, New York, and then prepared the heroin for distribution in the Bronx. During the ten-year period, RODRIGUEZ employed over a dozen people to work in heroin “mills” where bags of heroin were prepared, packaged, and delivered to heroin distribution “spots” in the Bronx.
In preparing the heroin, RODRIGUEZ and his workers mixed the heroin with chemicals including animal tranquilizers to create a potent and addictive drug that became popular with drug addicts and other users in the Bronx. RODRIGUEZ and other members of the drug organization used a number of vehicles with hidden compartments or “traps” to transport the kilograms of heroin within the New York City area. Specifically, RODRIGUEZ’s heroin was sold in the vicinity of Bryant Avenue in Bronx, New York — where his mother used to own a townhouse in which agents seized ammunition and evidence relating to RODRIGUEZ’s heroin organization — and in the vicinity of Vyse Avenue, also in the Bronx. In the ten years that RODRIGUEZ’s organization was in operation, it earned millions of dollars from heroin sales. During the course of the investigation, law enforcement agents and officers seized over $2.7 million in cash, 108 pieces of jewelry worth more than $160,000, and several expensive and antique vehicles. RODRIGUEZ was convicted of leading and organizing a continuing criminal enterprise (”CCE”), conspiring to distribute heroin, and possessing heroin with the intent to distribute it. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of life imprisonment on the CCE count, and mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years and maximum sentences of life on the heroin conspiracy and distribution counts. RODRIGUEZ is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge PRESKA on May 7, 2006.
Other individuals who participated in RODRIGUEZ’s heroin organization were arrested and have subsequently pleaded guilty to heroin trafficking and/or firearms offenses. These defendants include: - JULIO CRUZ ANDINO, a/k/a “Julio Ismael Cruz,” a/k/a “Julio Andino Cruz,” a/k/a “Julio Andino,” a/k/a “Julio Cruzismael,” who pleaded guilty on September 14, 2006; - LUIS ANTONIO CABAN who pleaded guilty on September 22, 2006; - MELVIN GONZALEZ CORDOBA who pleaded guilty on October 24, 2006; - JESUS MORALES, a/k/a “Tony,” a/k/a “Carlos Perez,” who pleaded guilty on September 12, 2006; - RAYMOND ALICEA who pleaded guilty on September 5, 2006; - CARLOS ALICEA who pleaded guilty on September 15, 2006; - MARTIN BLAS ALICEA, a/k/a “Martin Alice,” a/k/a “Martin O. Alicea,” who pleaded guilty on September 6 2006; - JOVANNY CORREDOR who pleaded guilty on September 7, 2006; - EPIFANIO DICENT, a/k/a “John Dicent,” who pleaded guilty on September 18, 2006; - PAQUITO RODRIGUEZ who pleaded guilty on November 6, 2006; - EDWIN SUAREZ, a/k/a “Tato,” who pleaded guilty on May 30, 2006; and - JEFFREY CARDONA who pleaded guilty on March 9, 2005. All of these individuals await sentencing.
Mr. GARCIA praised the investigative efforts of the DEA’s New York Drug Enforcement Task Force — which includes agents and officers of the DEA, New York City Police Department, and New York State Police for their assistance in the investigation, arrest and prosecution of RODRIGUEZ and many members of his organization.
Assistant Untied States Attorneys REED M. BRODSKY and GURUANJAN S. SAHNI are in charge of the prosecution.