Fort Worth meth dealer sentenced to more than 20 years for laundering almost $275K
A Fort Worth methamphetamine dealer who laundered about $275,000 of drug proceeds to send to Mexico was sentenced on Friday to more than 20 years in a federal prison.
Yesi Bastida-Carranza, 31, admitted he wired drug proceeds to traffickers in Mexico and distributed the methamphetamine in North Texas at the direction of a Mexico-based source of supply, federal agents said in a news release.
Bastida-Carranza was sentenced Friday to 262 months after pleading earlier this year to federal charges of conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The Fort Worth man was part of a money-laundering organization which made at least 713 wire transactions totaling more than $660,000 of illegal drug proceeds sent to Mexico in 2016 and 2017, according to a federal criminal complaint. Bastida-Carranza executed at least 293 transactions by sending $273,181.30.
Initially, Bastida-Carranza and his co-conspirators including his four siblings and others used two “sender” addresses. One belonged to Bastida-Carranza in Haltom City. As the scheme continued, Bastida-Carranza and the organization used numerous addresses and phone numbers to avoid authorities.
Bastida-Carranza and others received a portion of the money involved in the transactions as compensation for establishing the laundering activities, according to federal agents.
Federal agents executed a search warrant in 2017 for social media accounts controlled by Bastida-Carranza and tracked his wire transactions.
In March, authorities executed another search warrant at his home where they found about five kilograms of methamphetamine, $50,000 in cash and a drug ledger.
At a shed in Fort Worth that Bastida-Carranza frequented, federal agents also found about 15 kilograms of methamphetamine, digital scales and drug processing equipment.
