https://wgntv.com/news/chicagocrime/man-who-laundered-money-for-chicago-based-drug-trafficking-organization-handed-8-year-sentence-after-15-years-on-the-run/

A man who laundered money for a Chicago-based drug trafficking organization was handed an eight-year federal prison sentence this week after spending more than a decade on the run.

55-year-old Cosme Chacon, who pleaded guilty to a money laundering conspiracy charge in 2023, was handed the 100-month prison sentence by U.S. District Judge John Tharp Jr. on Tuesday during a hearing in federal court in Chicago, Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said Thursday.

Prosecutors said Chacon was one of four people indicted in 2007 over their participation in a drug trafficking organization that transported heroin to Chicago from New York, Florida and Texas.

Once the drugs had been sold in Chicagoland, Chacon laundered the proceeds through wire transfers to overseas locations.

Chacon’s three co-defendants pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 16 years, 12 years, and one year in federal prison.

The sentence comes more than 15 years after the indictment, as Chacon, who was let out on bond in 2009, initially failed to appear for status hearings in the weeks leading up to his trial and remained a fugitive until 2022 when he was taken into custody in Panama before being returned to the U.S.

According to Pasqual, the case was investigated by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF), which works to combat transnational organized crime and reduce the availability of illicit narcotics.

Authorities did not provide a booking photo for Chacon.