Apr.19, 2010

A Mexican woman who, along with her U.S.-born husband, laundered at least $900,000 in drug proceeds from his supplying of ketamine to customers in San Diego, Orange County and New York was sentenced Monday to 24 months in federal prison.

Ruth Correia, 43, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to conspiracy to launder money.

Her husband, Gregory Correia, was sentenced to nearly six years in prison on April 5 after his guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute ketamine, conspiracy to launder money and distribution of ecstasy.

Ketamine is a substance used as an anesthetic in human and veterinary medicine that has become popular with drug abusers for recreational use.

According to court records, Gregory Correia admitted he shipped at least 900,000 dosage units of ketamine from San Diego or Orange counties to customers in New York state.

The ketamine customers deposited cash into the Correias’ bank accounts at East Coast bank branches, the court records showed.

Gregory and Ruth Correia then withdrew the drug proceeds at bank branches on the West Coast, according to court records.

The couple admitted they laundered at least $900,000 in drug proceeds, and that the withdrawals and deposits were made in such a way as to conceal and disguise the source, ownership and control of the drug proceeds.

According to court records, the Correias entered the United States at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on March 29, 2009.

Port officials searched their car and found approximately 30 U.S. Postal Service Express shipping boxes, packaging tape, shipping labels, delivery confirmation slips and a business card for a shipping store in San Diego in the trunk, prosecutors said.

In Ruth Correia’s purse, an agent found about $4,000 in U.S. currency, multiple pay-and-owe sheets that referenced thousands of bottles, amounts per bottle, as well as receipts from a laboratory in Chula Vista, according to court records.

Gregory Correia admitted he was on his way to Chula Vista to pick up a liter of ketamine with the intent to deliver it to a customer in Santa Ana, court records showed.

Previously, according to court documents, on Sept. 26, 2006, Gregory Correia sold 1,000 ecstasy pills to an undercover DEA agent for $5,500. During their meeting, Correia offered to sell the undercover agent ketamine, court records showed.