哥伦比亚加密货币经纪人因洗钱毒资在纽约被判160个月：经手约1450万美元 USDT、另涉进口可卡因
美国纽约南区联邦检察官办公室 10 月 21 日宣布，哥伦比亚籍加密货币经纪人 Leonardo de Jesus Zuluaga Duque（别号「Rey」）当天被美国联邦地区法官 Mary Kay Vyskocil 判处 160 个月（13 年零 4 个月）监禁。他此前与另外五名被告一同被起诉，被指参与为包括毒品销售所得在内的数亿美元资金洗钱，并参与把 9 公斤可卡因带入美国；五名同案被告此前均已被判刑。
据起诉文件与法庭公开陈述，Zuluaga Duque 现年 63 岁、居住在哥伦比亚，是一个国际洗钱网络的加密货币经纪人并在其中担任监督角色：毒品交易等非法所得先被兑换成与美元挂钩的稳定币 Tether（USDT），由他与同伙 Erica Milena Lopez Ortiz 转交给经营无牌汇款业务的 Maximilien De Hoop Cartier，兑换成美元后，再经 Cartier 控制的一批美国空壳公司转往 Estrada Echeverry 等人控制的哥伦比亚公司，换成哥伦比亚比索后交回分发。2023 年 5 月至 11 月间，该团伙以此手法洗白了约 1,450 万美元源自毒品交易的 Tether。Cartier 此前已认罪并被判 8 年监禁，其无牌汇款业务经手转入美国的非法资金超过 4.7 亿美元。
检方还指控，Zuluaga Duque 与同伙合谋进口可卡因：2023 年 11 月，执法部门线人在执法人员指挥下与 Lopez Ortiz 和 Alexander Areiza Ceballos 协调购买约 9 公斤可卡因膏（cocaine paste），拟加工成可卡因后运往纽约，Zuluaga Duque 因促成这笔交易收取佣金；2024 年 2 月，线人又安排购买约 100 公斤可卡因膏，哥伦比亚国家警察在交易前执行搜查令，从 Areiza Ceballos 兄弟处查获约 111 公斤可卡因膏。
除监禁外，Zuluaga Duque 还被判 5 年狱后监管，并被责令没收 1,475 万美元（$14,751,846），另没收其控制的四个加密货币地址中原有的代币。同案其余被告刑期分别为：Cartier 96 个月、Lopez Ortiz 60 个月、Estrada Echeverry 48 个月、Alexander Areiza Ceballos 66 个月、Adrian Areiza Ceballos 36 个月。
纽约南区联邦检察官 Jamie McDonald 表示，该团伙「利用加密货币、一个由美国与哥伦比亚空壳公司组成的网络以及众多加密账户，运作了一套复杂的国际手法，借美国金融体系为数亿美元毒资及其他犯罪所得洗钱」。此案由联邦调查局 FBI 纽约外地办公室、国土安全调查局 HSI 纽约 El Dorado 专案组与国税局刑事调查局 IRS-CI 全球非法金融团队调查，哥伦比亚国家警察与美国司法部国际事务办公室等参与协助；检方团队来自该办公室非法金融与洗钱部门。
Colombian Crypto Broker Sentenced to 160 Months in New York for Laundering Drug Proceeds: About $14.5 Million in USDT, Plus a Cocaine Import Plot
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced on October 21 that Colombian cryptocurrency broker Leonardo de Jesus Zuluaga Duque, also known as "Rey," was sentenced that day by U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil to 160 months in prison (13 years and 4 months). He had been charged alongside five other defendants in connection with schemes to launder hundreds of millions of dollars, including narcotics sale proceeds, and to import nine kilograms of cocaine into the United States; all five co-defendants had previously been sentenced.
According to the charging instruments and statements made in open court, Zuluaga Duque, 63, a resident of Colombia, was a Colombia-based cryptocurrency broker who played a supervisory role in an international network that laundered proceeds of drug trafficking in Tether (USDT), a stablecoin connected to the U.S. dollar, through the United States to Colombia. Illicit proceeds were converted into Tether and transferred by Zuluaga Duque and co-defendant Erica Milena Lopez Ortiz to Maximilien De Hoop Cartier, who operated an unlicensed money transmitting business that converted the Tether into U.S. dollars. Using U.S.-based shell companies he controlled, Cartier then sent the dollars to Colombian companies controlled by Felipe Estrada Echeverry and others, where the money was converted into Colombian pesos and delivered for distribution. Between May and November 2023, the group laundered about $14.5 million in Tether derived from drug trafficking. Cartier previously pled guilty and was sentenced to eight years in prison; his unlicensed business transmitted more than $470 million in illicit proceeds through the United States.
Prosecutors also charged that Zuluaga Duque conspired to import cocaine: in November 2023, confidential sources working at law enforcement's direction coordinated the purchase of about nine kilograms of cocaine paste, to be manufactured into cocaine and delivered to New York, and Zuluaga Duque received a commission for helping arrange the deal. In February 2024, a source arranged a further purchase of about 100 kilograms of cocaine paste, and the Colombian National Police executed search warrants and recovered about 111 kilograms of cocaine paste from Alexander and Adrian Areiza Ceballos before the deal went ahead.
In addition to prison, Zuluaga Duque was sentenced to five years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $14,751,846, as well as the cryptocurrency tokens previously held in four addresses he controlled. His co-defendants received the following terms: Cartier 96 months, Lopez Ortiz 60 months, Estrada Echeverry 48 months, Alexander Egidio Areiza Ceballos 66 months, and Adrian Fernando Areiza Ceballos 36 months.
"The defendant and his conspirators operated a sophisticated international scheme to utilize cryptocurrency, a network of shell companies in the U.S. and Colombia, and numerous crypto accounts, to exploit the U.S. financial system to launder the proceeds of hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money and other criminal proceeds," said U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald. The case was investigated by the FBI's New York Field Office, Homeland Security Investigations' New York El Dorado Task Force, and IRS Criminal Investigation's Global Illicit Finance Team, with assistance from the Colombian National Police and the Justice Department's Office of International Affairs, and is being prosecuted by the office's Illicit Finance and Money Laundering unit.
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图片来源：纽约 Thurgood Marshall 联邦法院大楼（美国纽约南区联邦地区法院所在地）资料图。照片：Kidfly182 摄，CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse in New York, home of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (file photo). Photo: Kidfly182, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
GSM Global · 本篇英文版 English edition of this story
- 2026-10-21 19:05哥伦比亚加密货币经纪人获刑160个月：经美国空壳公司网络洗钱毒资约1450万美元
- 2026-10-22 02:13哥伦比亚加密货币经纪人因洗钱毒资在纽约被判160个月：经手约1450万美元 USDT、另涉进口可卡因本篇
