DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF News) – A federal grand jury in Dallas indicted eleven people, including a Texas night club tycoon and two former Dallas police officers in a multi-million dollar money laundering scheme.
The Department of Justice said the main culprit was 57-year-old Alfredo Hinojosa, who will plead guilty to allegedly allowing cocaine to be sold openly at three of his 40 night clubs in North Texas.
According to the indictment, certain selected dealers were allegedly permitted to sell approximately 100 to 200 baggies of cocaine on weekends, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in drugs being sold at the clubs.
Prosecutors said between 2014 and 2016, Hinojosa, who owned numerous clubs including the Far West nightclub in Dallas, OK Corral in Dallas and the OK Corral in Fort Worth, allegedly cleaned the money by laundering it through his clubs and a Mexican band.
The DOJ said the businesses in Texas and other states brought in about $107 million in revenue.
Hinojosa’s businesses dealt with large volumes of cash, which prosecutors said he used as a means for “hiding the true nature of certain cash deposits by using shell companies, making unusual deposits and transfers, and transporting cash from location to location.”
The two former Dallas police officers involved, Eddie Villarreal and Craig Woods, who both spent more than two decades on the force will plead guilty to lying to the FBI.
The indictment said the two acted as Hinojosa’s security detail and improperly used their positions as officers to benefit him.
Woods was an officer as recently as this March. Villarreal left the department in 2015.
The case is the result of a joint investigation between the Federal Bureau Investigation, the Dallas Police Department, Internal Revenue Service, Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
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