01:00 AM EST on Thursday, November 11, 2010

http://www.projo.com/news/content/PROVIDENCE_DEA_ARREST_TWO_11-11-10_I2KSLC9_v11.36d93c4.html

PROVIDENCE — Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested a father and son who run Espaillat Motors Inc., a Providence used-car dealership, Tuesday and charged them with money laundering.

The men were arraigned Tuesday in U.S. District Court, according to a a news release from the U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island.

The government seized 17 vehicles from Espaillat Motors Inc., at 75 Elmwood Ave., and will move in federal court for the forfeiture of the vehicles and the business’s assets.

Anyone who recently purchased a vehicle from the company and is awaiting their car should call the DEA at (401) 732-2550, and be ready to present purchase papers, according to Jim Martin, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island.

Domingo A. Lopez, 49, and his son Derlyn Lopez, 22, of Warwick, made initial appearances in U.S. District Court in Providence Tuesday afternoon before Magistrate Judge Lincoln D. Almond on complaints that charged each with two counts of money laundering. The judge ordered the men to be detained.

The investigation and arrests were announced by U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha and Steven W. Derr, special agent in charge of the New England Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration. The arrests and seizures are the result of a yearlong investigation by the DEA and the DEA task force and included information obtained by a confidential informant who was wired with audio- and video-recording devices, according to an affidavit on file in court.

According to the affidavit, Domingo, president of Espaillat Motors Inc., and his son Derlyn, an employee of the dealership, sold vehicles to a person who represented himself as a drug dealer; facilitated the insertion of a hidden compartment in one of the vehicles — a hidden compartment that the buyer indicated he wanted to assist in his narcotics dealing; listed the vehicle prices as under $10,000 when more than $10,000 in cash was paid for each car; and disguised or concealed the true identity of the buyer on paperwork associated with the sale of each vehicle.

Because the business was allegedly involved in the money laundering, the business and all assets traceable to the business are subject to forfeiture. The government intends to seek the forfeiture of Espaillat Motors’s inventory of vehicles.

Money laundering is punishable by a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment and a $500,000 fine.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Milind M. Shah and Sandra R. Hebert. It was investigated by the DEA and members of the DEA task force with assistance from the U. S. Marshals Service, IRS, ICE, Rhode Island State Police and Providence police.