Story Created:
Nov 2, 2012 at 5:40 PM CDT
Story Updated:
Nov 2, 2012
A preliminary hearing was held today in federal court in a case of money laundering. This case is quite unique as there are 5 different defendants with a total of 15 counts ranging from distribution of cocaine, money laundering and bulk cash smuggling. What makes this case complicated is that all 5 defendants will have separate trials and will deal with different counts against them.
On Monday, Antonio Silva Jinez will be the first defendant on trial for bulk cash smuggling. He was known to use his personal tractor-trailer to go as far north as Detroit, Michigan and cover other states like Illinois, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia to smuggle money into Mexico. A sting operation was created in order to show how Jinez used his trailer and merchandise to hide the money from custom agents. Jinez was offered a plea deal, but he refused in fear of losing his resident alien status. A jury will be selected on Monday at 9am.
