The US sentences a Colombian to five years for money laundering of Mexican drug trafficking proceeds

The Colombian Michael Nuñez Daza was sentenced in a Florida court to five years in prison for conspiring to launder money from drug trafficking, with operations in Colombia, Mexico and the United States, the Justice Department reported this Wednesday. According to court documents, alias Luky, 49, led a transnational money laundering organization and coordinated the collection of large amounts of cash derived from drug trafficking in several US cities, mainly from Mexico. In an eight-month period, between 2017 and 2018, Nuñez Daza, who was extradited to the U.S. last April, laundered at least $1.2 million for Mexican criminal organizations.

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After collecting the cash, it was deposited into U.S. bank accounts registered in the name of third parties – individuals and companies – before being transferred to Colombia and within days the same sum was delivered in cash, in Colombian pesos, in Cali to Nuñez Daza himself or his messengers. The Colombian already had a criminal record, as he had been convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and deported to his country in 2004, and with the new charges he was charged in January 2023, extradited in 2025 and pleaded guilty last August.