An international money launderer was recently sentenced for a conspiracy to conceal millions in drug proceeds.
Senior U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington recently sentenced 33-year-old Miguel Alexander Perez Perez, of the Dominican Republic, to eight years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering.
He was also ordered to forfeit $1,600,110.
According to court documents, Perez Perez was a broker of money laundering “contracts.” He participated in the collection of drug proceeds in the United States for introduction into the U.S. banking system. He concealed the source of those proceeds through trade-based money laundering schemes that included the purchase of devices such as cellphones in the United States.
The devices were then sold abroad. From June to August 2020, federal law enforcement completed four such money laundering contracts with Perez Perez in an undercover capacity. During a separate contract that Perez Perez brokered in July 2020, the Florida Highway Patrol stopped a money courier and seized more than $1 million in drug proceeds.
This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Florida Highway Patrol. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dan Baeza.
Perez Perez pleaded guilty on January 22, 2025.
This case was part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach.
