FBI Drug Probe Nets Newport Man

Federal agents have arrested a Newport Beach man in connection with a major undercover investigation of a suspected money laundering ring linked to Colombian drug cartels, officials announced Monday.

FBI agents, as part of an investigation begun in Chicago in 1990, arrested Martin Deleeuw, 29, in a Santa Ana restaurant last Thursday. Deleeuw allegedly was responsible for coordinating pickups in the Los Angeles area of laundered cash for the Cali and Medellin drug cartels, FBI special agent Gary K. Morley said.

After undercover agents tracked about $36 million in laundered money, agents in Chicago and New York arrested 11 other suspects last week, the FBI announced.

Morley said the FBI believes the nationwide arrests are significant because they put “out of commission some of (the drug cartels’) people over here” who are laundering money before it is transferred back to Colombia.

A day after Deleeuw’s arrest, federal agents searched his Newport Beach home, seizing jewelry believed to have been purchased with drug money, Morley said.

Investigators believe Deleeuw worked for Antonio Salvatore Yunez, 29, a Colombian who lived in Chicago. Yunez, arrested last week in Chicago, worked for Colombian cartels as a “money broker,” helping arrange money laundering schemes, the FBI said.

In addition to the arrests, federal agents said they seized $2.5 million in cash that was believed to have been laundered.

Deleeuw, a native of Argentina, was being held Monday in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center without bail, Morley said. Deleeuw waived extradition and will be transported to Illinois to face trial, Morley said.