Colombian model Valentina Forero Álvarez this week plead guilty of leading a multi-state criminal organization that used the U.S. financial system to launder more than $31 million in drug trafficking proceeds.
In a press release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia informed that Forero Álvarez, a 33 year-old woman from the Colombian city of Armenia, plead guilty on Tuesday.
U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg detailed that the Colombian national directed a network of couriers who traveled to Colombia to launder the illegal drug trafficking money through the U.S. banking system.
As part of the laundering scheme, the office detailed, Forero Álvarez instructed non-U.S. citizens, mainly Colombian nationals, to travel to the U.S. on visitors visas, “conduct multiple pickups of bulk cash in cities across the country, and deposit the money into bank accounts held in the names of shell companies or U.S.-based businesses operating in the unregulated currency exchange market.”
The couriers made counter deposits into bank accounts while in Georgia and at least 14 other U.S. states. Investigations revealed that accounts opened by the couriers received more than $31 million in cash deposits, of which $2.9 million were deposited in the Northern District of Georgia. More than $4.8 million of suspected drug money was seized by agents.
“Forero Álvarez presided over an international network that exploited our financial system to launder millions of dollars of drug proceeds,” Hertzberg said. “Narco-terrorists and their associates who believe they can hide their crimes through complex laundering schemes or residency abroad will be found, brought to the United States, prosecuted, and held accountable.”
Her conviction carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, an a fine of up to twice the value of the laundered funds, in addition to other penalties. U.S. District Judge Steven D. Grimberg is set sentence Álvarez at a later date.
Colombia’s Caracol Radio reports that she was detained in Colombia on November 2023 and extradited to the United States on May 2025. In January, Colombian prosecutors reportedly seized three vehicles and three commercial establishments registered in the names of front companies, relatives, and individuals close to Forero Álvarez, none of whom had the “economic or financial capacity to prove the valid acquisition of the properties.” The seized assets collectively amounted to 7.3 billion Colombian pesos (roughly $2 million).
Univision’s local Atlanta branch reports that it obtained access to court documents detailing that the couriers collected cash from drug tales and transported it in shoe boxes and shopping bags, in bundles that could total “tens of thousands” of dollars each. Couriers received a percentage of the collected money as payment.
“After collecting the cash, the couriers deposited the money in banks in amounts less than $10,000 to avoid mandatory reporting,” Univision reported. “They also had to send photographs of the bank receipts to the defendant using encrypted messaging applications.”
According to Univision, after the deposits, the money was moved between front companies and then ultimately transferred to accounts in Colombia.
Read the full article here