Arizona man sentenced to 15 years in prison for role in transnational drug trafficking and money laundering operation

Date: Aug. 12, 2024

Contact: [email protected]

Johnstown, PA - A resident of Phoenix, Arizona, was sentenced in federal court to 180 months in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, on his convictions of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, fentanyl, and methamphetamine, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, United States Attorney Eric G. Olshan announced today.

Senior United States District Judge Kim R. Gibson imposed the sentence on Jairo Morales, on Aug. 8, 2024. Morales was one of 35 defendants charged through a Second Superseding Indictment unsealed in January for their participation in a domestic and international narcotics and money laundering conspiracy involving substantial quantities of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine.

According to information presented to the Court, from in and around August 2021 to in and around June 2023, in the Western District of Pennsylvania, Morales conspired with others to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, 400 grams or more of fentanyl, and 500 grams or more of methamphetamine. Further, from in and around April 2022 to in and around March 2023, Morales conspired with others to commit money laundering. Morales was intercepted on a federal wiretap obtaining quantities of cocaine, fentanyl, and methamphetamine that he distributed to others. The Court found that Morales was responsible for conspiring to distribute 7.48 kilograms of cocaine, 83 kilograms of fentanyl, and 72 kilograms of methamphetamine and that Morales possessed firearms in connection with that drug trafficking activity.

Assistant United States Attorney Arnold P. Bernard Jr. prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

United States Attorney Olshan commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Laurel Highlands Resident Agency and Homeland Security Investigations for the investigation that led to the successful prosecution of Morales. Additional agencies participating in this investigation include the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS CI), United States Postal Inspection Service, and other local law enforcement agencies.

This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multiagency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.