11/20/2020
Local and federal law enforcement, working in conjunction, spent years investigating large-scale narcotics traffickers in an effort that ultimately brought down the money-laundering ring.
According to court documents, beginning around 2013 and continuing until September 2019, the defendants conspired to distribute heroin, fentanyl and marijuana and commit large-scale money laundering.
The schemes relied on the use of small businesses that held themselves out as cell phone stores. The stores sold few, if any, cell phones, and they conducted little, if any, legitimate business otherwise. Rather, the stores were merely front businesses for drug traffickers to send large amounts of money related to their drug trafficking from Columbus to Mexico.