Two Sentenced to Prison for Laundering Sinaloa Cartel Drug Proceeds

ST. LOUIS - U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk on Tuesday sentenced two men to prison for laundering money in the St. Louis area for the Sinaloa drug cartel.

Judge Pitlyk sentenced Carl Von Garrett, 55, of St. Charles, Missouri, to 135 months in prison and Tobiyyah Israel, 39, of Ohio, to 36 months in prison in separate hearings. Both men were found guilty by a jury in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in May of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of money laundering. Von Garrett was also found guilty of one additional count of money laundering.

Evidence at the trial showed that Von Garrett laundered nearly $1 million in seven transactions in the spring of 2021 for the Sinaloa cartel. During the Von Garrett sentencing hearing, Judge Pitlyk said the large quantity of money in the case reflected significant drug sales and that Von Garrett's crime was "threatening to the community."

Luis Miguel Hernandez, 38, of Phoenix, previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of money laundering and admitted being driven by Von Garrett to a meeting with an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration task force officer in St. Louis on March 1, 2021. Hernandez delivered $100,095 in drug proceeds and then arranged a series of meetings between Antonio Jones, 51, of Florissant, Missouri, and the task force officer. On March 8, 2021, Jones handed over $100,000. Jones delivered $150,030 on March 17 and $100,000 on March 31. On April 8, Jones delivered $109,740.

Israel was a courier, like Jones, evidence and testimony showed. On April 14, Israel picked up $221,020 from Von Garrett. Von Garrett was then stopped by investigators, who found six phones and a ledger that contained dates and amounts of money roughly corresponding to cash drops, evidence showed. Israel told investigators that he'd been promised $1,000 to pick up the cash, and that he'd done so once before.

Jones then delivered $100,100 on May 18 and another $100,100 on May 25.

Hernandez was sentenced in January to 87 months in prison and Jones was sentenced to 37 months in prison. Jones pleaded guilty to two counts of money laundering.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the FBI, the St. Louis County Police, the Bridgeton Police Department, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, and the St. Charles County Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jim Delworth and Ricardo Dixon are prosecuting the case.

This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (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.