Oakland business owner Felipe de Jesus Ornelas Mora has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for money laundering drug proceeds through his business, Rincon Musical. The investigation into his activities began when wire receipts were discovered on the cell phones of arrested drug dealers, and it was revealed that he had been accepting large sums of money from these individuals and sending it to Mexico and Honduras using other customers’ identities.
Ornelas Mora, 51, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and received three years of supervised release in addition to his prison sentence. The transactions conducted by him and his employees involved wiring amounts under $3,000 in order to avoid federal reporting requirements. In his plea agreement, Ornelas Mora admitted that the money received from certain individuals was linked to drug trafficking and that the laundering activities were a way to skirt mandatory reporting rules.
DEA Special Agent in Charge Brian M. Clark stated that money laundering plays a crucial role in the cartel business model and praised the efforts to disrupt the flow of drug money in the Northern District of California. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick D. Robbins emphasized that the prosecution of businesses involved in laundering drug money serves as a warning to others engaging in similar activities. CI Acting Special Agent in Charge Michael Mosley added that facilitating drug trafficking by laundering illegal proceeds only worsens the drug epidemic in communities and will not be tolerated.
