By rssfeeds-admin The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon identified the woman as 40-year-old Brenda Lili Barrera Orantes – a Guatemalan national unlawfully living in the United States.
According to court documents, Barerra Orantes owned and operated La Popular, a money services business with locations in Oregon spanning Hillsboro, Beaverton, Woodburn, Odell and Canby, along with Vancouver, Washington.
Authorities claim that from August 1, 2024, through November 1, 2024, the stores sent more than $4.2 million in wire transfers to places in Mexico.
During this time period, authorities said her other co-conspirators accepted nearly $50,000 in cash represented as drug proceeds and laundered the funds through the La Popular stores. Officials claim she charged a 10 percent commission to help launder the funds.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Barrera Orantes admitted that when she wired the funds, she used fake sender information, structured the transfers into smaller amounts and used different La Popular stores to conceal the drug proceeds.
On April 16, investigators executed a search warrant at Barrera Orantes’ Beaverton home and three La Popular stores in Beaverton, Hillsboro and Vancouver. Authorities arrested Barrera Orantes and seized more than $315,000 in cash, a 2021 Cadillac Escalade, jewelry and high-end clothing.
On May 13, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a 23-count indictment, charging Barrera Orantes with money laundering and conspiracy, failure to file a currency transaction report and failure to file a suspicious activity report.
On Friday, Barrera Orantes pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments and agreed to forfeit her Beaverton home and all seized property involved in the money laundering scheme.
Authorities said Barrera Orantes faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $500,000 fine and three years supervised release. Barrera Orantes’ sentencing is set for January 21
Discover more from RSS Feeds Cloud
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.