The Cornerstone Report: Volume 2, Issue 3

Drug Traffickers Launder Profits Through Casinos

Nine members of the Gabriel Gomez drug trafficking organization were exposed and convicted largely through evidence collected pursuant to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and other financial records.

Charles Roybal was known as the “money-man” of the Gomez drug trafficking organization and was responsible for laundering the group’s illegal proceeds from drug sales. He was a known gambler, but a modest one. That is until Gomez hired him to launder the group’s profits. Both the money Gomez paid Roybal for his services, and the large sums of money put into his possession to be laundered, allowed him to trade in his low-budget gambling style for that of a high roller.

Roybal would recruit third parties at the casino to purchase or cash in chips for him, paying them a nominal fee to do so. Presumably unbeknownst to them, the chips were being purchased with illegal drug profits. After spending some time gambling, Roybal would cash some of the chips back out again, claiming they were his gambling winnings, and thereby fabricating a source for the Gomez group’s revenue other than drug trafficking, successfully “laundering” the money.

But every time he cashed-out more than $10,000 in chips, his activities were being recorded on Currency Transaction Reports-Casinos (CTRCs). According to those CTRCs, Roybal’s total chips purchased equaled approximately $117,000, and total chips redeemed, $430,000, a difference of $313,000. When this amount was compared to the recorded winnings in the pit area, the numbers did not add up.

The reports provided other evidence in support of money laundering charges against Roybal and his group. Twenty-four of the CTRCs recording his activities revealed the use of aliases and multiple social security numbers. On numerous other CTRCs, he had refused to provide a social security number.

In addition to money laundering, he was charged with Structuring Transactions to Avoid Reporting Requirements.

In the face of the evidence against them, eight of the nine defendants in this case pleaded guilty to a 68 count superseding indictment charging distribution of marijuana, money laundering and structuring transactions to avoid reporting requirements. Criminal forfeitures in the case included $15 million in bank accounts, multiple properties and automobiles.

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Cornerstone Calendar

Cornerstone is U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) comprehensive investigative initiative for fighting financial crime, trade fraud and intellectual property crime.

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