Jun.25, 2010, 10:11:00 AM

A man who laundered tens of thousands of dollars for drug dealers has been jailed.

Cordell Simmons, 59, wired nearly $80,000 worth of ill-gotten gains to accounts in Jamaica and the U.S. so that criminals abroad could collect the cash.

Simmons was paid around $100 for every $1,000 he wired abroad by drug dealers who wanted to get the “dirty money” out of Bermuda.

He made dozens of transfers for amounts of up to $3,000 at a time through Western Union and MoneyGram between June 2008 and November 2009.

Yesterday Simmons was jailed for two years by Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner.

Simmons told the court he used the money he was paid to finance his drug habit.

Strong message

Police said the case should send out a strong message to anyone involved in money laundering.

Detective Sergeant Grant Tomkins from the Financial Crime Unit told the Sun: “This is how the drug dealers and other criminals try to get the proceeds of crime out of Bermuda.

“We are doing everything we can to stop this from going on in Bermuda and that fits in well with our approach of tackling crimes from various angles.

“This case should be a warning to people being used by drug dealers to get money off the island. They may think they will never get caught but this case shows that is not correct.

“They are taking a huge risk by involving themselves in these kind of enterprises. This conviction is the result of hard work from a number of officers in the unit.”

Simmons, who lives at the Salvation Army in Pembroke, admitted two counts of money laundering.