The owner of the Popular, a chain of money transfer companies from Oregon and Washington, has laundered at least $ 18 million in drug traffickers from Hondurienne and Mexican drug traffickers, according to federal prosecutors.
Brenda Lili Barrera Orants, 39, of Beaverton is listed as owner of the Popular Stores in Hillsboro, Beaverton, Canby, Woodburn, Odell and Vancouver and appeared on Thursday before the American district court of Portland.
The stores have worked with other monetary service agents to send species accepted by customers via a wire to recipients across the country or abroad, according to a federal complaint.
The assistant prosecutor of the United States, Julia Jarrett, told the judge magistrate American Stacie F. Beckerman that the affairs of Barrara Orants had bleached around $ 18 million from January 2021 to April 2024.
Barrera orant billed costs of 10% for each transaction, leaving it with at least $ 1.8 million, said Jarrett.
During these four years, the popular dealt with a total of $ 89 million in more than 178,000 cash transfers, according to the complaint.
Federal agents searched his house in Beaverton with a mandate on Wednesday and found $ 120,000 in cash at the bottom of a closet, grouped by $ 10,000, said Jarrett. They also searched Los Angeles popular stores in Beaverton, Hillsboro and Vancouver.
Honduran drug traffickers in the past five years have worked with Mexican drug trafficking organizations in the Metropolitan region of Portland and were “invited by their bosses to take the product” of their sales to local silver service companies, including the Popular, according to the complaint.
The concessionaires send money to Honduras families to hide traffic, says the complaint.
The Popular has broken down the money into several metallic transfers in its stores using false names and addresses so that sender avoid the requirements for holding files, according to the complaint.
Deputy Federal Public Defender Kara Sagi said that Bourra Orants should be eligible for the Liberation while waiting for the trial, but Sagi said that she was not ready to discuss on Thursday.
Beckerman ordered the Orants to be held to be held while waiting for a future detention audience next week.
Jarrett had argued that Barrera orants present a serious risk of not returning to the court if he is released.
Barrera orant, originally from Guatemala, received almost a decade ago to leave the country voluntarily after having exceeded his visa but was not, according to Jarrett.
The popular seems to be in business since 2020, said the federal complaint.
Homeland Security Investigations Investigators, in collaboration with the Internal Revenue Service and the WestSide Interagences of the Interagences, launched the investigation in 2021 on the basis of the advice of a confidential informant.
The agents asked the informant to speak to Barrara orants and provide him with $ 10,000 of the so -called drug sales, according to the complaint.
They met on February 1, 2022, at the entrance to a Home Depot in Beaverton, where two infiltration agents helped the informant with the transfer of money, according to the complaint.
Barreras Orants said that she needed more than one beneficiary name to avoid suspicion, the complaint says.
She accepted the money in the parking lot, and one of the infiltrated agents later sent her a bank account number for the wiring of the money, said the complaint.
The Popular Beaverton store then wired three $ 2,500 deposits and a fourth for $ 1,928, with Orant Barrara pocketing the rest, depending on the complaint.
When an infiltration agent expressed his concern about the delivery of money in a public car park, Barrera Orants suggested meeting for a meal for the next transaction, prosecutors and investigators said.
In September of the same year, the informant met Barrera orants at the Vancouver store, given him $ 15,000 in a back room, a list of recipient names and $ 1,500 for his costs, according to the complaint. The two then went out to eat, where the informant told him that the money came from the sale of drugs, and the orant barra then sent the receipts of informants for eight metal transfers, according to the prosecutors.
Investigators said several of the business practices had raised red flags, including a high concentration of money transferred to “source locations of known drugs”, in particular the Franciso Morazán department in Honduras and Sinaloa, Jalisco and Michoacan in Mexico.
There have also been several transfers of less than $ 1,000 sent to fast or “gust” and a lack of apparent family ties between a sender and a receiver, said the complaint.
“Silver whitening allows drug traffickers to thrive in the shadows, and by breaking their cash flows, we hit the very thing that encourages their illicit activities,” said Matthew Murphy, special agent in charge of the Seattle internal security investigations. “By stopping those who try to hide criminal profits, communities are protected from violence, dependence and instability caused by drug trade.”
– Maxine Bernstein covers the Federal Court and Criminal Justice. Join her at 503-221-8212, mmbernstein@oregonian.com, follow her on x @maxoregonianOn Bluesky @ maxbernstein.bsky.social or on Liendin.