KC Reporter

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The owner of an Olathe, Kansas, business pleaded guilty in federal court today to her role in a money-laundering conspiracy to transfer the proceeds of heroin and methamphetamine trafficking to Mexico. A Kansas City, Mo., woman also pleaded guilty to her role in the drug-trafficking conspiracy.

Ana Lilia Leal-Martinez, 48, a citizen of Mexico residing in Overland Park, pleaded guilty before U.S. Chief District Judge Beth Phillips to participating in a conspiracy to commit money laundering from May 23, 2020, to Sept. 20, 2022.

Leal-Martinez is the owner of Imagen Leal in Olathe, Kan., which offers money transfer services. By pleading guilty today, Leal-Martinez admitted that she accepted drug proceeds from co-conspirators, including Jose Jesus Sanchez-Mendez, also known as “Michoacano,” 41, a Mexican national. Those drug proceeds were then sent by wire transfer to individuals in Michoacan, Mexico.

Between Jan. 1, 2022, and June 8, 2022, Leal-Martinez sent wires totaling $83,850 to Mexico from her business in furtherance of the money-laundering conspiracy. These transfers were structured and sent under assumed names in order to avoid suspicion and detection.

Leal-Martinez was one of 44 defendants indicted in this case after Homeland Security Investigations initiated an investigation into a drug-trafficking organization that distributed more than 335 kilograms of methamphetamine, 22 kilograms of heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl sourced from Mexico into the Kansas City area. Investigators identified numerous bulk cash smugglers and drug traffickers working for the organization as part of the $4.7 million conspiracy.

Co-defendant Flor Gonzalez-Celestine, 54, of Kansas City also pleaded guilty today to participating in a $4.7 million conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and heroin from Feb. 28, 2020, to Sept. 20, 2022. Gonzalez-Celestine participated in four controlled drug buys monitored by law enforcement and sold more than a kilogram of methamphetamine to a confidential informant while being observed with approximately an additional 2.2 kilograms of methamphetamine.

Sanchez-Mendez has pleaded guilty to his role in a continuing criminal enterprise involving drug-trafficking and money-laundering conspiracies as well as illegally reentering the United States. A sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.

Under federal statutes:

- Leal-Martinez faces up to 20 years in federal prison without parole.

- Gonzalez-Celestine faces a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years up to life imprisonment without parole.

The maximum statutory sentences are prescribed by Congress for informational purposes; actual sentencing will be determined by the court based on advisory guidelines and other statutory factors following presentence investigations by the United States Probation Office.

This case is prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Patrick C. Edwards and Megan A. Baker with investigations conducted by multiple agencies including Homeland Security Investigations; U.S Customs and Border Protection; Drug Enforcement Administration; Jackson County Drug Task Force; IRS-Criminal Investigation; Kansas Bureau of Investigation; police departments across Missouri and Kansas among others.

This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation aimed at identifying high-level criminal organizations threatening U.S security through multi-agency collaboration on intelligence-driven operations against illicit financial networks.