Source: United States Department of Justice News
BOSTON – A Winthrop man pleaded guilty on Friday, April 8, 2022, in federal court in Boston to laundering over $335,000 in cocaine proceeds and distributing over 15 kilograms of cocaine.
Fabio Quijano, 58, of Winthrop, pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy, money laundering, conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine. U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin scheduled sentencing for Aug. 15, 2022. Quijano was arrested and indicted in February 2020. He was subsequently charged in a superseding indictment in May 2020.
Quijano worked with at least two other men—including co-defendant Jairo Agudelo, who previously pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 57 months in prison—to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug proceeds derived from Quijano’s large-scale cocaine trafficking business.
On June 26, 2018, Quijano delivered $135,180 of cocaine proceeds to an undercover officer posing as a money laundering intermediary acting on behalf of a Colombian money broker. On Feb. 4, 2019, Quijano’s business partner delivered another $310,000 in drug proceeds to the undercover. And on Feb. 18, 2019, Agudelo attempted to deliver $200,000 to the undercover officer, on behalf of Quijano and his business partner, when he was stopped by police. Agudelo later admitted that Quijano had given him the $200,000 to launder.
On Feb. 20, 2019, investigators executed a search warrant at the stash house operated by Quijano and his business partner, located in an apartment in Everett. Inside the apartment, investigators located nearly four kilograms of cocaine, over $310,000 in cash from prior drug sales, a hydraulic kilogram press, drug packaging materials and numerous drug ledgers.
United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Brian D. Boyle, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Field Division; and Joleen D. Simpson, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division made the announcement. Critical assistance was provided by the Boston Police Department; Massachusetts State Police; Revere Police Department; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Enforcement and Removal Operations; and the United States Marshals Service. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lauren A. Graber and Jared C. Dolan of Rollins’ Narcotics & Money Laundering Unit prosecuted the case.
This investigation is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.