The Region : Drug Money-Launderer Gets 18 Months

A Los Angeles federal judge sentenced a Colombian money-launderer to 18 months in prison for his part in a scheme to smuggle more than $2 million out of the United States in oil cans destined for Panama. U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson said he might have imposed a longer sentence on Fernando C. Posada “if he were not a Colombian.” Said Wilson: “I don’t think it’s worth our tax dollars warehousing him any longer than that.” The judge, who earlier sentenced Posada’s uncle, Alonzo Correa, 48, to the same sentence, added that he would recommend summary deportation of Posada immediately upon his release from prison. “We don’t need a guy like this in this country,” Wilson said. A third Colombian, Guillermo Velez, 38, who has pleaded guilty in the money-laundering case, which federal prosecutors linked to cocaine sales, faces sentencing next month.