Cartel Boss Sentenced Over Car Wash Money Laundering

Photo: Dennis Grombkowski (Getty Images)

Rosalinda “La Jefa” González Valencia was sentenced to five years in prison for laundering money through a car wash she owns in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico. Prosecutors argued that Valencia was laundering money for Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the dangerous criminal organization allegedly run by Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera-Cervantes.

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Car washes are definitely a sub-par place to clean your vehicle, but they’re seemingly just as awful at obscuring illicit financial dealings. González Valencia’s lawyer admitted that she had hidden transactions made at her establishment in 2015 and 2016 but the court didn’t definitively connect her to organized crime. Vice News reported:

“[The prosecutor] didn’t demonstrate that [Mrs. González Valencia] belonged to an organized crime group, didn’t demonstrate that she has operated with illicit proceeds, didn’t prove that this is money-laundering and didn’t show that she has manipulated her bank accounts,” her lawyer Víctor Francisco Beltrán García told the Mexican newspaper El Universal.

He argued that El Mencho’s wife was accused of laundering money, not hiding financial transactions, and is appealing his client’s sentence.

Yes, it should be noted that González Valencia married El Mencho, and organized crime has seemingly been a family affair for her. Her son Rubén Oseguera González is set to be tried in the United States next year. El Menchito was arrested by Mexican law enforcement in 2015 and then extradited to the US. The United States Drug Enforcement Agency has a $10 million bounty on El Mencho himself, and he still remains at large.