Florida Man Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison for Conspiring to Launder Money and Distribute Fentanyl

BOSTON - A Florida man has been sentenced in federal court in Boston for drug possession and distribution charges.

Wuesley Pelaez Vela, 34, of Tallahassee, Fla., was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge William G. Young to nine years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release. In May 2025, Pelaez Vela pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to launder money and one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl. The defendant was indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2022 along with five alleged co-conspirators.

In 2019, an investigation began into a Colombia-based money laundering organization that was laundering drug proceeds on behalf of multiple drug trafficking organizations. Between 2020 and 2022, Pelaez Vela coordinated with an undercover agent to conduct multiple pick-ups of drug proceeds to be paid out to drug suppliers in Mexico for the purpose of laundering the cash. In total, Pelaez Vela organized 13 money pickups totaling $1,127,573 in drug proceeds.

Additionally, in October 2021, Pelaez Vela instructed an undercover agent to purchase fentanyl, provided the undercover agent with photos of the pills and a code phrase to order the pills containing fentanyl. Two packages sent as part of this transaction, which contained over 600 grams of fentanyl, were subsequently seized.

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Jarod A. Forget, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, New England Field Division made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian J. Sullivan of the Narcotics & Money Laundering Unit prosecuted the case.

This case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF Boston is comprised of agents and officers from HSI, FBI, DEA, ATF, USMS, IRS-CI, USPIS, DOL-OIG and DSS, as well as several state and local law enforcement agencies, with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts.