Two alleged members of a transnational money laundering organization were arrested on criminal charges related to their involvement in laundering millions of dollars in illegal drug proceeds for Mexican drug trafficking organizations, including the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels.
Li Pei Tan, 46, of Buford, Georgia, was arrested today. Chaojie Chen, 41, a foreign national residing in Chicago, was arrested on April 18.
According to court documents, Tan and Chen allegedly worked for a money laundering organization that laundered millions of dollars in proceeds from the importation and distribution of illegal drugs into the United States, primarily through Mexico. Tan, Chen, and their co-conspirators reportedly traveled throughout the United States to collect proceeds derived from trafficking fentanyl and other drugs. They allegedly communicated with co-conspirators in China and other countries to arrange for laundering these proceeds through financial transactions designed to conceal the illicit source of the drug money.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) National Drug Threat Assessment, the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels are central to the fentanyl crisis in the United States.
Tan and Chen are charged with conspiring to commit money laundering. If convicted, they each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri; U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber for the Eastern District of Virginia; and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram made the announcement.
The DEA’s Special Operations Division is investigating the case with assistance from its offices in Chicago, Atlanta, Charlotte (North Carolina), as well as its Office of Special Intelligence and Document Media Exploitation Unit.
Trial Attorney Mary K. Daly of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Edgardo J. Rodriguez for the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting this case with support from U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for Northern Districts of Georgia and Illinois.
This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation which aims to identify, disrupt, and dismantle high-level criminal organizations threatening the United States using a prosecutor-led approach driven by intelligence across multiple agencies. More information about OCDETF can be found at www.justice.gov/OCDETF.
A criminal complaint is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
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