Bail Denied in Money-Laundering Case

A federal fugitive who was also charged by Mexican authorities with being the head of a massive drug money-laundering ring was ordered held without bail Thursday by a U.S. magistrate who said he was a flight risk.

Luis Fernando Mejia Pelaez, a 50-year-old Colombian, slumped in his chair when a court interpreter relayed the ruling by Magistrate Irma Gonzalez. Noting that Mejia has no ties to the United States and possesses “the ability to assume other identities,” Gonzalez ordered him held without bail.

Mejia was indicted by a federal grand jury in 1986 on 194 criminal counts for his alleged role in a $36-million money-laundering scheme. Nine people, most of them relatives of Mejia, were named as accomplices. At least three people, including Mejia’s sisters Cecilia and Dora, escaped prosecution by fleeing to Colombia. The family allegedly used area banks and a San Ysidro currency exchange to launder millions of dollars.

Guillermina Watson, a one-time officer of the now-closed Bank of America branch in Coronado, was convicted in 1987 on 206 counts of currency violations for helping the Mejias launder the funds. She was sentenced to five years in federal prison and remains incarcerated.

On Thursday, Assistant U.S. Atty. L.J. O’Neale revealed that Mejia was arrested last week in a San Diego-area motel room after U.S. Customs agents were tipped to his whereabouts by Mexican Federal Judicial Police. O’Neale said that Mexican authorities had intercepted a collect call Mejia made to his residence in Tijuana from the motel.

Mejia had registered under the name Herman Vargas, but paid with a credit card issued in his real name, O’Neale said. He also had business cards under the Vargas name, identifying him as managing director of a trading company in Miami. According to O’Neale, agents also found a cable in Mejia’s possession that authorized the transfer of $470,000 from a New York bank to two other U.S. financial institutions.

O’Neale said that Mexican authorities gave U.S. counterparts the numbers of nine bank accounts allegedly controlled by Mejia in New York, Miami and Panama. The prosecutor conceded that the accounts are not in Mejia’s name.

Mexican police arrested 12 people Tuesday and charged them with being members of a Tijuana money-laundering ring headed by Mejia. The ring is alleged to have laundered $60 million to $70 million a month for Colombian drug lords through three Mexican auto dealerships and two Tijuana currency-exchange houses. Mexican officials said the ring also shipped a ton of cocaine a month to Southern California.

At Thursday’s court hearing, O’Neale conceded that Mejia used a legal passport issued in Medellin, Colombia, and two legal U.S. visas issued in Bogota to enter this country in September. All the documents were issued in his real name.

The bail hearing for Mejia ended on a note of confusion. Magistrate Gonzalez said she was familiar with the 1986 U.S. case that resulted in Mejia’s indictment. In her ruling, Gonzalez said she believed a statement that Mejia allegedly made to Customs agents, in which he admitted being a courier in the scheme that resulted in his indictment. O’Neale argued at the hearing that Mejia was the “main beneficiary” of the laundered funds.

Defense attorney Ezekiel Cortez smiled when asked about Gonzalez’s finding and O’Neale’s argument, which seemingly contradicted each other, but declined to comment further.