Minnesota money launderer charged with funneling $750K to Mexican cartel

(FOX 9) - A Minneapolis man who worked at a money transmitting business is accused of secretly funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug money to a Mexican cartel.

Minnesota to Mexico money laundering

What we know:

Christopher A. Bravo Marin, 46, of Minneapolis, is charged with conspiring to launder at least $750,000 in drug proceeds on behalf of the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, widely known as CJNG.

According to the indictment, from at least February 2023 to at least February 2026, Marin, commonly known as "Bravo," used his position at a Minnesota-based money transmitting business to move cartel drug money to Mexico while deliberately avoiding the company's own anti-money laundering safeguards.

Dig deeper:

Court documents state that Bravo allegedly structured each transfer to stay just below $1,000 — the threshold at which his employer required customers to show and verify identification.

By keeping transfers under that limit and spreading the money across multiple transactions, he was able to move large sums without triggering suspicion.

To disguise where the money was coming from, documents state that Bravo created fake names of Hispanic origin to list as the senders and used straw beneficiaries in Mexico — names he received directly from cartel members — to receive the funds. After processing each transfer, he forged the sender's signature on the payment confirmation receipt to make the transaction appear legitimate, then texted screenshots of those receipts to his co-conspirators to be picked up in Mexico.

Cartel members paid Bravo approximately $40 to $50 for each transfer he processed.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents arrested Bravo as part of a broader investigation into CJNG, documents state.

MinnesotaCrime and Public Safety