Peruvian citizen sentenced to 87 months for role in transnational drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracy | USAO-NDNY

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Hilario Renato Mendoza Beltran, 48, and Peruvian citizen, was today sentenced to 87 months in prison for conspiring to distribute more than 5 kilograms of cocaine and conspiring to launder the proceeds of an international cocaine trafficking organization.

The announcement was made by Acting United States Attorney Antoinette T. Bacon; Ray Donovan, US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent, New York Field Division; Jonathan D. Larsen, Special Agent in Charge, New York Field Office, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – Criminal Investigation; and Kevin Kelly, Special Agent for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Buffalo Field Office.

Between August 2014 and March 30, 2016, a money laundering and drug trafficking organization based in Montreal, Canada collected the proceeds from the sale of marijuana in the United States and cocaine in Canada. The money was delivered to couriers, among others, in Albany County, Ulster County and Montreal so that the money could be delivered, by courier or wire transfer, to cocaine vendors to purchase from cocaine. At least $ 1 million has been sent to Chicago, Los Angeles, Peru, Mexico, and Colombia; money was also transferred to China. The organization then organized the smuggling of cocaine back to Canada and transported some of the cocaine to upstate New York.

Pleading guilty, Mendoza Beltran admitted that between October and December 2014, he acted as an agent of the Peru-based organization receiving and transporting approximately $ 472,000 in drug products and arranging for delivery. of about 140 kilograms of cocaine to the co-conspirators. in Piura, Peru. Pilots working for the organization then recovered the cocaine from an illegal airstrip outside Piura and airlifted it to Guatemala and then to Mexico, where it was smuggled into the United States. .

Mendoza Beltran’s guilty plea follows his formal extradition from Peru to the Northern District of New York in August 2019.

United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino also sentenced Mendoza Beltran to 2 years of supervised release after his imprisonment, upon his release from prison and in case he remains in the country. .

In the same case, all of the following people pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking and money laundering before Judge D’Agostino, and several were convicted.

This case is the result of the DEA’s close cooperative efforts, including the Albany District Office and DEA offices in Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles. and in Worcester, Massachusetts; IRS-Criminal Investigation and HSI. These federal agencies worked in close collaboration with the Sûreté du Québec, the Canada Border Services Agency, the Peruvian National Police and the Colombian National Police. The US Border Patrol, Malone Police Department, New York State Police, Chicago Police Department, Massachusetts State Police, and Watervliet Police Department also provided assistance.

This case was and is being pursued by Assistant US Prosecutors Elizabeth R. Rabe, Daniel Hanlon and Emmet J. O’Hanlon.