A Colombian cryptocurrency broker known by the alias “Rey” received a 160-month federal prison sentence this week for his central role in laundering roughly $14.5 million in drug-trafficking proceeds through Tether’s USDT stablecoin and for conspiring to import cocaine into the United States.
Leonardo de Jesus Zuluaga Duque, a Colombia-based broker, occupied a supervisory position in an international network that funneled illicit funds from Colombian drug traffickers into the U.S. financial system and back.
Between approximately May and November 2023, he and associates converted drug proceeds into USDT, transferred the tokens to an American intermediary, and arranged for their conversion into U.S. dollars.
Those dollars moved through a network of shell companies before returning to Colombian businesses, where they were converted into pesos for distribution to the original participants.
The American intermediary, Maximilien de Hoop Cartier, operated an unlicensed money-transmitting business that converted the stablecoins into dollars and routed them through U.S.-based entities he controlled.
Cartier previously pleaded guilty in a related matter involving more than $470 million in illicit proceeds and received an eight-year sentence.
Other participants included Erica Milena Lopez Ortiz, who helped transfer the USDT, and Felipe Estrada Echeverry, whose Colombian companies received the returning dollar payments.
All five co-defendants have now been sentenced by the same judge, with terms ranging from 36 to 96 months.
Beyond the financial scheme, Zuluaga Duque participated in efforts to bring cocaine into the United States.
In November 2023, law-enforcement-directed confidential sources arranged the purchase of approximately nine kilograms of cocaine paste intended for delivery to New York; Zuluaga Duque received a commission for facilitating the arrangement.
A subsequent negotiation for roughly 100 kilograms of cocaine paste in early 2024 prompted Colombian authorities to execute search warrants that recovered about 111 kilograms of the substance from two co-conspirators.
U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in the Southern District of New York imposed the sentence on October 21, 2026.
In addition to the 160-month term, Zuluaga Duque must serve five years of supervised release and forfeit $14,751,846 plus cryptocurrency previously held in four addresses under his control.
Prosecutors described the broader enterprise as a sophisticated operation that exploited cryptocurrency, shell companies on both sides of the border, and multiple crypto accounts to move hundreds of millions of dollars in drug proceeds and other criminal funds through the U.S. financial system.
The case was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation, the FBI’s New York Field Office, and Homeland Security Investigations’ New York El Dorado Task Force, with assistance from Colombian National Police and other international partners. It highlights how stablecoins have become a preferred tool for narcotics organizations seeking to move large sums across borders while attempting to obscure the origin of the funds.
