SAN DIEGO (CN) - A Calexico man who rented a border warehouse over an incomplete tunnel pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder drug money, federal prosecutors said.
Ricardo Rosales Rafael, 45, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to launder $340,172 in "bulk cash from Mexico," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.
Rosales rented a warehouse near the border, "at the direction of his son-in-law," the U.S. attorney said.
Homeland Security agents on Aug. 25, 2011 "discovered an incomplete tunnel inside that large Calexico warehouse along with a horizontal directional drilling machine, alignment tools, level tripods, jack hammers, drills, electric saws, forklifts, hydraulic lifts, air compressors, and other tools used in the construction of a tunnel," prosecutors said in the statement.
Rosales, who is in jail, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.
The U.S. attorney did not identify his son-in-law.
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