ATLANTA — The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia announced the arrest of a Norcross family of five on Tuesday.
Agents accuse them of laundering money for two Mexican drug cartels: La Nueva Familia Michoacana and The Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
The family members include David Vinalay, Jerome Lewis, Irving Hernandez, Beatriz Hernandez Chilel, and Karina Perez Hernandez.
Agents accuse the men of the family of bringing drug money to the women of the family who would then wire it back to cartel leaders in Mexico. Investigators said they’d do that through their check-cashing business in Norcross called La Pulga Esperenza.
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“The defendants allegedly trafficked high volumes of fentanyl and other deadly drugs into our community and then laundered the illicit proceeds of their activities as directed by a Mexico-based drug trafficker, including more than $1 million during a mere two-month period,” Acting U.S. Attorney Richard S. Moultrie Jr said. “Although these individuals took great measures to conceal their alleged criminal conduct, a determined and coordinated effort by our federal and local law enforcement partners helped to secure the federal charges in this case.”
Agents said that arrest should put a dent in the cartels’ money laundering scheme.
Monday night, investigators said they arrested five suspected dealers in Douglasville and took $300,000 worth of money, guns and jewelry from them. They also confiscated 100 pounds of fentanyl during the bust.
“That’s about 23.5 million lives that will be saved,” the DEA’s Special Agent in Charge Jae Chung said.
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Also this week, agents said they added La Nueva Familia Michoacana to the terrorist organization list.
“This speaks volumes about the level of threat and the seriousness that federal law enforcement is taking this,” said Homeland Security Investigations Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Steve Schrank.
Channel 2’s Courtney Francisco was at the news conference where rewards totaling $8 million were issued for brothers 52-year-old Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga, also known as El Pez, and 41-year-old Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga, also known as El Fresa, who are both accused of leading La Nueva Familia Michoacana.
You could get $5 million for turning in Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga and $3 million for turning in his brother, Jose Hurtado Olascoaga, to federal agents.
A Federal Grand Jury in Atlanta indicted them for conspiracy to manufacture, import, and distribute cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl to the United States. Agents believe they are likely in Mexico. You can send tips to the DEA at 404-281-3220 through the encrypted messaging apps WhatsApp or Signal.
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