Two members of a transnational money laundering organization sentenced for laundering millions of dollars in drug proceeds

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A Georgia man was sentenced today to six years and six months in prison for his involvement in a conspiracy to launder millions of dollars in drug proceeds on behalf of foreign drug trafficking organizations, including the Sinaloa cartel and Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (the Jalisco cartel or CJNG). On Dec. 4, 2024, a co-conspirator was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison for his role in the same money laundering scheme.

According to court documents, Li Pei Tan, 47, of Buford, Georgia, and Chaojie Chen, 41, a Chinese national who resided in Chicago, worked for an organization that laundered millions of dollars in proceeds related to the importation of illegal drugs into the United States, primarily through Mexico, and the unlawful distribution of these drugs. Tan, Chen, and their co-conspirators traveled throughout the United States to collect proceeds derived from trafficking in fentanyl, cocaine, and other drugs. They communicated and coordinated with co-conspirators in China and other foreign countries to arrange for the laundering of these proceeds through financial transactions that were designed to conceal the illicit source of the drug proceeds, including through a sophisticated trade-based money laundering scheme involving the purchasing of bulk electronics in the United States and the shipping of these electronics to co-conspirators in China.

On multiple occasions prior to Chen’s May 2024 arrest, law enforcement seized hundreds of thousands of dollars in bulk cash drug proceeds from Chen at locations across the United States.  Tan was intercepted by law enforcement in South Carolina while attempting to transport over $197,000 in drug proceeds.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA’s) National Drug Threat Assessment, the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels are at the heart of the fentanyl crisis in the United States.

Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Matthew R. Galeotti, Supervisory Official of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; and and Louis A. D’Ambrosio, Special Agent in Charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Special Operations Division, made the announcement after sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton.

The DEA’s Special Operations Division, Bilateral Investigations Unit investigated the case, with assistance from the DEA’s Office of Special Intelligence, Document and Media Exploitation Unit and the DEA’s offices in Chicago, Atlanta, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Edgardo J. Rodriguez of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney Mary K. Daly of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:24-cr-145.