The owners and employees of two Oakland money transfer businesses have been charged with laundering drug proceeds via wire transfers to Mexico.
Charged were Felipe de Jesus Ornelas-Mora – who owned Rincon Musical on International Boulevard – along with Veronica Mora and Yoselin Perez-Ramirez, who were both cashiers at the company, according to a SilliconValley.com report.
Also charged was Grisela Cancelada-Liceaga, who owned America Latina on Fruitvale Avenue and also previously worked Ornelas-Mora as a cashier.
All four of them have been charged with laundering money and could be imprisoned for up to 20 years in prison and fined $500,000. All four defendants have been released from jail while the charges are pending, court records show.
The group was working together to transfer drug proceeds to Mexico and other parts of the United States on behalf of drug traffickers, the Internal Revenue Service and Drug Enforcement Administration concluded following an investigation, according to the report.
The group used an identity theft scheme to obscure where the money was coming from and used multiple recipients to avoid law enforcement scrutiny over massive wire transfers.
The investigation started after two men charged in federal court with drug trafficking identified Rincon Musical as a primary business they would use to send money to the person responsible for smuggling them drugs, who lived in Mexico.
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