A Mexican national could spend up to two decades in prison after pleading guilty to laundering $4 million worth of drug trafficking proceeds via crypto.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) says Carlos Erick Vazquez Gonzalez, 48, earned $40,000 by working with various “money brokers” who had him collect drug profits earned in cities throughout the country.
Gonzalez ended up securing $4 million worth of the drug profits in a crypto wallet. He quickly moved the digital assets to obscure their origins, then sold the crypto for US dollars in Mexico.
The DOJ says Gonzalez then returned the cash to a “money broker” who arranged the pickup of drug proceeds in the US.
The Mexican national’s sentencing is scheduled for December 17th. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
US regulators also claim Mexican drug cartels employ crypto for multiple purposes beyond money laundering. In 2024, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) said Mexican drug traffickers were using digital assets to purchase fentanyl precursor chemicals, pill presses, die molds and other manufacturing equipment from Chinese companies.
The cartels reportedly rely on Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), the top stablecoin USDT and the privacy coin Monero (XMR), among other crypto assets.
FinCEN is an agency at the U.S. Department of the Treasury that polices money laundering and terrorism financing.
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