Money Launderer Ordered to Prison for 37 Years

A money launderer for some of Latin America’s biggest drug barons has been sentenced to 37 months in federal prison for “cleansing” $150,000 in cash given him by undercover agents, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors said Jose Enrique Leon, 53, owner of the Travel Club, a Canoga Park travel agency, laundered money for south-of-the-border drug traffickers such as Amado Carrillo Fuentes and the Arellano Felix brothers.

While investigating several large Colombian and Peruvian drug dealers in 1996, authorities learned that Leon was laundering drug money, according to Assistant U. S. Atty. Thomas P. Sleisenger.

A year later, undercover agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation approached Leon and told him that they wanted him to launder money.

“The idea was to shut this guy down,” Sleisenger said. “We did it through a series of stings, having him wire-transferring money to bank accounts in Texas under FBI control.”

In their first transaction, FBI agents gave Leon $20,000 in cash, which he was led to believe was derived from cocaine sales. Leon wire-transferred $18,000 to a Mexican bank where he had an account. Then he transferred the money to the Texas bank accounts, Sleisenger said. Leon was paid $2,000 for his trouble.

In a second transaction, Leon agreed to launder $125,000 through a Swiss bank account for a commission of $16,000.

Leon pleaded guilty in August to three counts of money laundering. He was sentenced Monday by U. S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall.