Show-Me State Times

Two men have been sentenced to prison for laundering money for the Sinaloa drug cartel in the St. Louis area, according to a ruling by U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk on Tuesday.

Carl Von Garrett, 55, of St. Charles, Missouri, received a sentence of 135 months in prison. Tobiyyah Israel, 39, of Ohio, was sentenced to 36 months in prison. Both were convicted by a jury in May on one count each of conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering. Von Garrett faced an additional conviction for another count of money laundering.

Evidence presented during the trial indicated that Von Garrett laundered nearly $1 million through seven transactions during the spring of 2021 for the Sinaloa cartel. During sentencing, Judge Pitlyk commented on the scale and impact of the crime: “the large quantity of money in the case reflected significant drug sales and that Von Garrett’s crime was ‘threatening to the community.’”

Luis Miguel Hernandez, 38, from Phoenix, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of money laundering. He admitted being driven by Von Garrett to meet with an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration task force officer in St. Louis on March 1, 2021. At that meeting, Hernandez delivered $100,095 believed to be drug proceeds and later coordinated further meetings between Antonio Jones, 51, from Florissant, Missouri, and law enforcement officers.

According to court records:

- On March 8 and March 31 of that year Jones handed over $100,000 each time.

- On March 17 he delivered $150,030.

- On April 8 he provided $109,740.

- On May 18 and May 25 Jones delivered sums totaling more than $200,000.

Testimony also showed Israel acted as a courier similar to Jones. On April 14 he picked up $221,020 from Von Garrett before investigators stopped them; they found six phones and a ledger containing dates and amounts matching cash drops detailed in evidence. Israel told investigators he had been promised $1,000 for picking up cash—a task he said he had performed once before.

Hernandez was sentenced earlier this year to serve 87 months in prison while Jones received a sentence of 37 months after pleading guilty to two counts of money laundering.

The investigation involved multiple agencies including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), FBI as well as local police departments from St. Louis County; Bridgeton; St. Louis Metropolitan; and St. Charles County.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jim Delworth and Ricardo Dixon prosecuted the case.

This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) operation which aims at disrupting major criminal organizations using a multi-agency approach led by prosecutors drawing on intelligence resources from participating agencies across federal levels (https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF).