A former Chicago resident who pleaded guilty last year to laundering money from illegal drug sales on behalf of two Mexican cartels has been sentenced to five years in prison.
Mario Herrera, 55, of Michoacan, Mexico, was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Andrea R. Wood in Chicago after pleading guilty last year to a count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to the U.S. Attorney office.
Herrera helped clean more than $100 million from the sale of narcotics on behalf of the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels, federal prosecurots said. He was personally responsible for laundering or attempting to launder about $1.07 million of cartel money.
Herrera was among 30 defendants to be charged charged as part of a Chicago-based federal investigation dubbed “Operation King’s Gold,” prosecutors said.
