Federal prosecutors accuse Minneapolis man of laundering $750,000 for Mexican drug cartel

Sarah Nelson, Star Tribune on Aug 26, 2026

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MINNESOTA — A federal grand jury has indicted a 46-year-old Minneapolis man for allegedly using his job at a Minnesota money services business to launder funds for a Mexican drug cartel.

According to the indictment, Christopher Bravo Marin helped launder at least $750,000 in drug proceeds on behalf of the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación from February 2023 through February 2026. One of Mexico’s most powerful cartels, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel is a key source of the illicit fentanyl supply to the United States.

“This defendant strengthened a criminal infrastructure by helping transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug proceeds to cartel leaders,” said U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Daniel Rosen. “My office remains committed to taking down drug trafficking organizations that threaten the public safety of the people of Minnesota.”

Bravo Marin made his initial appearance on Tuesday in a Minneapolis federal courtroom. He entered a not guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to engage in money laundering and will be appointed an attorney. If convicted, he could face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, though federal judges have wide discretion in determining sentences.

The charges allege Bravo Marin conspired with the Mexican cartel to launder the funds and transfer them, for which he was paid between $40-50 for each transfer.

Prosecutors say Bravo Marin used various means to evade his employer’s detection, including the use of fake names and sending the money to straw beneficiaries in Mexico. He also ensured that each transfer remained below $1,000 so as not to trigger the company’s threshold for verifying a customer’s identification document.

The charges also allege Bravo Marin concealed his laundering by doing a limited number of transfers in a day. In a text to his co-conspirator’s request to make a dozen transfers, Bravo replied: “I can’t do so many in just one day because problems come up, I can do six maybe seven for you but that’s it.”

On another occasion, Bravo Marin signaled to a co-conspirator that he couldn’t send the funds because “the money business called us and gave us a list of suspicious transactions, I have to act like an idiot, but you have to wait for the waters to calm.”

After processing the illicit transfers, Bravo Marin forged the senders’ signature on each payment confirmation receipt and texted screenshots of the copies to his co-conspirators so the funds could be obtained in Mexico.

Homeland Security Investigations in St. Paul and the Dakota County Drug Task Force investigated the case.

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