TUCSON (CN) - A former Border Patrol agent on Thursday was sentenced to two years in federal prison for trying to launder $61,000 of suspected drug money.
Raimundo Borjas, 41, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Prosecutors said that in 2010 Borjas made a deal with a suspected drug dealer called "Rigo" to deposit $61,600 of damaged cash, which was dirty, frayed and filled with holes, into Borjas' personal checking account at a credit union in the border town of Douglas, Ariz.
Borjas later withdrew $32,400 of clean bills and returned the money to Rigo, and received $9,720 for his trouble. He was supposed to have laundered the remaining $28,100 of Rigo's dirty money, but federal officials seized it before he could do so, prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge Jennifer Zipps sentenced Borjas to 2 years, ordered forfeiture of the remaining money, and ordered Borjas to pay back the $9,720 that he made from the scheme.
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