Date: May 21, 2025
Contact: [email protected]
ST. LOUIS — Two men were convicted Wednesday of all charges related to their laundering of money in the St. Louis area for the Sinaloa drug cartel.
Carl Von Garrett, of St. Charles, Missouri and Tobiyyah Israel, of Ohio, were each found guilty by a jury in U.S. District Court in St. Louis of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of money laundering. Von Garrett was also found guilty of one additional count of money laundering. The trial began on May 12.
Two others have already pleaded guilty and been sentenced in the case. Luis Miguel Hernandez, of Phoenix, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of money laundering and Antonio Jones, of Florissant, Missouri, pleaded guilty to two counts of money laundering. Hernandez was sentenced in January to 87 months in prison and Jones was sentenced to 37 months in prison.
As part of his plea agreement, Hernandez admitted being driven by Von Garrett to a meeting with an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration task force officer in St. Louis on March 1, 2021, to deliver $100,095 in drug proceeds. Hernandez then arranged a series of meetings between Jones and the task force officer. On March 8, 2021, Jones handed over $100,000. Jones delivered $150,030 on March 17 and $100,000 on March 31. On April 8, Jones delivered $109,740 and $100,100 on May 18. On May 25, 2021, Jones delivered $100,100.
During closing arguments Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Delworth told jurors that Von Garrett was the “focal point” of the conspiracy and Israel was a courier, like Jones. On April 14, Israel picked up $221, 020 from Von Garrett. Von Garrett was stopped by investigators, who found six phones and a ledger that contained dates and amounts of money roughly corresponding to cash drops, Delworth said. Israel told investigators that he’d been promised $1,000 to pick up the cash, and that he’d done so once before.
The money drops continued. On May 18, Jones delivered $110,100 and $100,100 one week later.
Both men are scheduled to be sentenced on August 21.
IRS-Criminal Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, the St. Louis County Police, the Bridgeton Police Department, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, and the St. Charles County Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jim Delworth and Ricardo Dixon are prosecuting the case.
This prosecution is part of an operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach.
IRS-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. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.