Florida.— The Colombian Michael Nuñez Daza was sentenced in a state court to five years in prison for conspiring to launder money derived from drug trafficking, with operations in Colombia, Mexico and the United States, the Department of Justice reported this Wednesday.
According to court documents, alias ‘Luky’, 49, he led a transnational money laundering organization and coordinated the collection of large amounts of cash derived from drug trafficking in several U.S. cities, mainly coming from Mexico.
In an eight-month period, between 2017 and 2018, Nuñez Daza, who was extradited to the United States last April, laundered at least $1.2 million for Mexican criminal organizations.
After collecting the cash, these funds were deposited into bank accounts in the United States registered in the names of third parties before being transferred to Colombia and, within days, the same amount was delivered in cash, in Colombian pesos, in Cali to Nuñez Daza himself or to his couriers.
The Colombian already had a criminal record, having been convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and deported to his country in 2004.
The joint investigation between United States federal agencies and Colombian authorities led to an arrest warrant for extradition in 2023, and, although he remained at large for several months, he was apprehended on April 25, 2024 and extradited two months later.
