Date: Jan. 17, 2025
Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov
BOSTON — Two men from Jamaica were convicted yesterday following a four-day jury trial for their involvement in a sophisticated international money laundering organization that laundered more than $6 million in drug trafficking proceeds from Colombian cartels through the United States, Caribbean and European banking systems.
St. Devon Anthony Cover was convicted of one count of money laundering conspiracy and seven counts of laundering of monetary instruments. Dennis Raymond Rowe was convicted of one count of money laundering conspiracy, one count of money laundering and two counts of laundering of monetary instruments. U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns will schedule sentencing for a later date. The defendants were among 20 individuals from Colombia, Jamaica and Florida who were indicted by a federal grand jury in May 2022 in connection with the money laundering conspiracy.
Over the course of the investigation, $1 million was seized from corporate bank accounts and other investigative activity. Nearly 3,000 kilograms of cocaine – with a street value of over $90 million – was traced back to the money laundering organization. This includes approximately 1,193 kilograms of cocaine seized at sea, 60 miles south of Jamaica, in July 2019, as well as 1,555 kilograms of cocaine seized in nine scrap metal shipping containers at the Port of Buenaventura, Colombia, in March 2019.
“Today’s convictions reflect the relentless efforts of this office and our law enforcement partners to dismantle the sophisticated financial networks that fuel international drug cartels. These defendants were key players in a scheme that laundered millions in drug proceeds – enabling the flow of deadly narcotics onto our streets,” said United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy. “This case demonstrates that we will hold accountable all players in the illicit drug operations that have had a devastating impact on Massachusetts.”
“Those who choose to launder money from drug proceeds are endangering the general public in Massachusetts. Maintaining public safety requires that they be prosecuted aggressively,” said Stephen Belleau, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Field Division. “We will continue to work closely each day with our law enforcement partners to target those who seek to profit from the sale of deadly substances.”
In or about October 2016, law enforcement began an investigation into a sophisticated money laundering organization located primarily in Barranquilla, Colombia. During an extensive five-year investigation, the organization laundered over $6 million in drug proceeds through intermediary banks in the United States, including banks in Massachusetts, as well as additional proceeds through banks in the Caribbean and Europe by use of the Colombian Black Market Peso Exchange (BMPE). By using the BMPE, the defendants and their co-conspirators sought to conceal drug trafficking activity and proceeds from law enforcement as well as evade currency exchange requirements in the United States and Colombia through the illegal currency exchange process. As part of the conspiracy, members of the organization held roles and responsibilities relative to the needs and opportunities of the scheme, such as drug suppliers, peso brokers, money couriers and business owners/dollar purchasers.
Through the BMPE, Colombian drug trafficking organizations with drug proceeds generated in the United States use third parties – generally referred to as “peso brokers” that are also based in Colombia – who agree to exchange Colombian pesos they control for the drug supplier’s dollar proceeds. Peso brokers then use money couriers in the United States and elsewhere to physically secure the drug proceeds, often in suitcases or bags on the street, and transfer the proceeds into the United States banking system. To avoid detection, peso brokers deposit the drug proceeds into bank accounts in company or individual names intended to appear as legitimate business activity, or through multiple small deposits into different bank accounts which are then consolidated into larger accounts. As a result, Colombian peso brokers control a pool of drug-derived proceeds in United States bank accounts. These dollar proceeds are then purchased by individuals or companies in Colombia seeking to exchange pesos for United States dollars at a favorable exchange rate and in a manner that avoids currency exchange and income reporting requirements. The dollar drug proceeds are transferred at the direction of the purchaser, and often end up in bank accounts of individuals or companies who appear to have no direct involvement in drug trafficking crimes.
During the course of the conspiracy, Cover laundered approximately $268,000 and Rowe laundered over $600,000 by delivering bulk cash drug proceeds to undercover law enforcement.
The charges of money laundering conspiracy and laundering of monetary instruments each provide for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $500,000, or twice the amount involved, whichever is greater. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.
U.S. Attorney Levy; DEA Acting SAC Belleau; Thomas Demeo, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Boston Field Office; Aura Liliana Trujillo Rojas, Delegate for Criminal Finance for the Colombian Attorney General’s Office; Ricardo Sánchez Silvestre, Brigadier General of the Colombian National Police Anti-Narcotics Directorate; Jervis Moore, Chief of the Narcotics Division for the Jamaica Constabulary Force; and Colonel Geoffrey Noble of the Massachusetts State Police made the announcement. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section’s Office of the Judicial Attaché in Bogotá, Colombia provided significant assistance in securing the arrests and extraditions of Cover, Rowe, and other co-defendants from Colombia and Jamaica. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jared C. Dolan and Alathea E. Porter of the Criminal Division are prosecuting the case.
The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The remaining defendants are presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.