Jury Convicts El Paso Attorney Marco Delgado In Connection With A Multi-Million Dollar Money Laundering Scheme

In El Paso 47-year-old El Paso attorney Marco Antonio Delgado, a.k.a. Marco Delgado Licon, faces up to 20 years in federal prison after a jury convicted him of conspiracy to launder up to $600 million in illegal drug proceeds announced United States Attorney Robert Pitman and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Dennis Ulrich.

Based on evidence presented during trial, the jury found that from a period of time between 2007 and 2008, Delgado conspired with other individuals to launder $600 million in illegal drug proceeds for members of the Milenio Drug Trafficking Organization. Two episodes of money laundering demonstrated to the jury included a Department of Homeland Security seizure in September 2007 of $1,000,000 in U.S. Currency traveling from Atlanta, GA to Mexico via El Paso; and, an HSI seizure of $50,000 in drug proceeds, in July 2008, in Chicago, IL, which was transported to El Paso and deposited in Delgado’s Attorney Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account (IOLTA) bank account.

Delgado, who has remained in federal custody since his arrest in November 2012, is scheduled to be sentenced at 10:30am on January 24, 2014, before United States Senior District Judge David Briones.

Delgado is currently set to go to trial again on November 18, 2013, based on a separate indictment which charges him with two wire fraud counts and 15 money laundering counts. According to that indictment, in January 2010, Delgado, as a legal representative of FGG Enterprises, Inc. (FGG) signed a $121 million contract between FGG and the Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE), a Mexican-state-owned utility company, for the acquisition and installation of equipment at the Agua Prieta II power plant located in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico. Pursuant to the agreement, payments from CFE to FGG were to be deposited into a FGG bank account located in El Paso. The indictment alleges that Delgado, for the purpose of personal enrichment and without the consent of the sole owner of FGG, submitted a fraudulent written request to the Banco Nacional de Comercio Exterior in Mexico which caused two wire transfers—one on March 8, 2010, in the amount of $20 million and one on July 6, 2010, in the amount of $12 million—to be deposited into a bank account he controlled located in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The indictment further alleges that Delgado subsequently wire transferred approximately $1.15 million from the Turks and Caicos Island bank account to bank accounts in El Paso; Taos, NM; and, Pittsburg, PA, in order to conceal or disguise the nature, location, source ownership or the control of the proceeds from his scheme.

Upon conviction, Delgado faces up 20 years in federal prison per count. An indictment is merely a charge and should not be considered as evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

This indictment resulted from an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Assistant United States Attorneys Debra Kanof and Anna Arreola are prosecuting these cases on behalf of the Government.