HARRISBURG — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Pennsylvania, Middle), published as received.

HARRISBURG - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Christopher Lopez, age 41, and Michael Torres, age 43, both of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, were sentenced on January 23, 2025, by United States District Court Judge Jennifer P. Wilson on money laundering charges.  Lopez received a sentence of one year and one day in prison and Torres was sentenced to six months in prison.  Both defendants were ordered to serve one year on supervised release following completion of their prison terms.

According to Acting United States Attorney John C. Gurganus, Lopez owned C&D Motorsports, a car dealership located in Lancaster, where Torres was employed as a salesperson. Agents with the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) began investigating C&D Motorsports and Lopez in 2019 after receiving reports that C&D Motorsports catered to known drug traffickers who were known to have purchased vehicles from the dealership, and that the dealership had not been filing currency transaction reports for cash sales in excess of $10,000, as required by federal law.

IRS-CI conducted an undercover operation during which agents purported to be a drug trafficker and his girlfriend.  The undercover agents met with Torres and Lopez at C&D Motorsports on October 16, 2019, and discussed purchasing a vehicle using cash from drug trafficking and ensuring that the vehicle would be put in the girlfriend’s name and that the drug trafficker’s name would be omitted from paperwork filed in connection with the sale.  On December 11, 2019, the undercover agents returned to C&D Motorsports to meet with both Torres and Lopez to complete a cash purchase of a vehicle, which Lopez and Torres caused to be titled in a third party’s name.  A federal grand jury returned an indictment in February 2022, charging Lopez and Torres with conspiring to commit money laundering involving proceeds represented to have been from drug trafficking.

Following a four-day trial in February 2024, a jury found both Lopez and Torres guilty of conspiring together to accept more than $33,000 in cash proceeds that were represented to be from the sale of cocaine, and to conceal the nature, source, ownership, and control of those proceeds by having the vehicle titled in a third party’s name.

“IRS Criminal Investigation is committed to unraveling complex financial transactions and money laundering schemes where individuals attempt to conceal the true source of their money,” stated Amy MacNeely, Acting Special Agent in Charge, IRS-Criminal Investigation, Philadelphia Field Office.

This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

The case was investigated by the IRS Criminal Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christian Haugsby and Joseph Terz prosecuted the case.

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