4 North Texas business owners found guilty in 2-year, $16 million money laundering scheme

SHERMAN, Texas — A jury on Monday has found four North Texas men guilty of federal money laundering violations, announced U.S. Attorney John M. Bales, Eastern District of Texas. 

On Sept. 19, a jury found the following four men guilty of conspiracy to commit money laundering after a weeklong trial before U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant: Miguel Rivas Estrada, 29, of Michoacán, Mexico; Felipa Torres, 49, of Dallas, Texas; Justa Centeno, 52, of Dallas; and Jose Angel Olvera, 40, of Dallas.

This case was investigated by the following agencies: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations; Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations; the Texas police departments of Lancaster, Dallas, Balch Springs, Rowlett and Irving; the Texas sheriffs’ offices of Dallas and Rockwall counties; Fate (Texas) Department of Public Safety; and the Texas Attorney General’s Office. 

According to information presented in court, Felipa Torres owned and operated Cumbia Recordz; Justa Centeno owned and operated Variedades Esperanza; and Jose Olvera owned and operated Super Mercado 5 Estrellas.  All three of these businesses operated as money services businesses (MSBs) located in the Northwest Highway area in Dallas. They were authorized agents of several International Money Remitter Companies, such as:  Barri Financial Group, Continental Exchange Solutions, GroupEx Financial Corporation, InterCambio Express Corporation, Intermex Wire Transfers LLC, Sigue Corporation, Unidos Financial Corporation, and Viamericas Corporation. The three MSBs used these remitter services to facilitate transmitting proceeds derived from illegally distributing methamphetamines via wire transfers to Michoacán, Mexico. 

Between June 2013 and October 2015, these MSBs laundered more than $16 million in illicit proceeds from the North Texas area to Michoacán, Mexico. These MSBs charged a wire transaction fee to help launder these illicit proceeds.  It was part of the laundering scheme that the MSBs structured the wires in amounts less than $1,000 coupled with using fictitious sender information in order to avoid bank-secrecy-act reporting requirements, and to conceal the true origin and ownership of the illicit proceeds.

Miguel Angel Rivas Estrada was the head of the multi-kilo methamphetamine transnational distribution ring who was also found guilty of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. 

Under federal statutes, the defendants each face up to 20 years in federal prison at sentencing. Sentencing will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines prescribed by Congress and other statutory factors.  A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the U.S. Probation Office completes a presentence investigation.

This case resulted from an ongoing Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) joint investigation. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the nation’s illegal drug supply. 

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Heather Rattan and Leslie Brooks, Eastern District of Texas.