The owner of a Southwest Detroit restaurant is facing federal charges, alleging he laundered money to states known for their connections to Mexican drug cartels.
According to the feds, 58-year-old Juan Romo-Padilla, who owns La Posada, a Mexican restaurant, convenience store and money remitter business, was arrested last week after a joint investigation by the DEA and IRS.
Romo-Padilla is facing federal charges for conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, international money laundering, laundering of represented drug proceeds, and violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.
According to the criminal complaint, feds have been investigating Romo-Padilla since September 2024 for allegedly sending cash transfers of drug proceeds to Mexico through La Posada.
It's alleged that between 2022 and 2026, he conducted more than 100,000 wire transfers totaling over $140 million to Mexico. The feds say nearly all of those funds were sent to Mexican states associated with major drug cartels, including the Jalisco New General Cartel, La Familia Michoacana and the Sinaloa Cartel.
“Money laundering is not a victimless crime, it is the financial engine that allows drug traffickers to turn illicit profits into the resources that fuel addiction, violence, and death in cities across America,” DEA Detroit Special Agent in Charge Joseph Dixon said in a statement. “We will follow the money, expose the networks behind these operations, and dismantle the financial infrastructure that allows them to thrive. We are moving with a renewed sense of urgency and will not stop until these criminal networks are destroyed.”
“The arrest of Juan Romo-Padilla for his role in transmitting funds from illegal drug transactions in and out of the United States is a victory for the American public and a defeat to drug traffickers everywhere. The special agents of IRS Criminal Investigation continue in their mission to disrupt the flow of ill-gotten gains that is the lifeblood for these criminals,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Todd Strom, Detroit Field Office, IRS Criminal Investigation. “We will continue to be relentless in our mission to dismantle these drug trafficking organizations and bring the criminals who run them to justice.”
