Man sentenced to 8 years for Chicago drug money laundering

CHICAGO - A Mexican man was sentenced to eight years in federal prison for laundering illegal drug money in the Chicago area.

Miguel Salinas Salcedo, 42, pleaded guilty earlier this year to a money laundering conspiracy charge.

Salinas Salcedo and others picked up cash from drug traffickers in the Chicago area and deposited it into bank accounts, making the money accessible in pesos to traffickers in Mexico.

From 2019 to 2021, Salinas Salcedo unknowingly subcontracted the work of picking up the cash to undercover law enforcement officers. During that two-year period, the undercover officers accepted 24 cash-pickup assignments from Salinas Salcedo, totaling roughly $2.9 million.

Some of the cash pickups took place in Lansing and Countryside.

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Salinas Salcedo offered the officers an additional 103 pick-up assignments which would have been worth approximately $18 million.

Evidence revealed that Salinas Salcedo worked with several other cash pick-up partners outside of the undercover agents. 

"These weren’t just one-off transactions that defendant conducted; he was in the business of laundering funds," Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew C. Erskine argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum.  "The drugs that were sold to generate the funds at issue undoubtedly caused harm to individuals within the United States both directly and indirectly."