Flight Attendant, Two Bank Employees Charged in Federal Indictment of Alleged Mexico-Based Drug Trafficking Organization
CHICAGO — Sheila G. Lyons, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Chicago Field Division, and U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual for the Northern District of Illinois announced that a flight attendant and two bank employees in Indiana have been charged in a federal indictment that accuses a Mexico-based drug trafficking organization of moving thousands of kilograms of cocaine into the United States and laundering tens of millions of dollars in proceeds.
A superseding indictment unsealed May 17 in U.S. District Court in Chicago charges flight attendant Glenis Zapata, 34, of Lafayette, Indiana, with assisting the traffickers in the transportation of drug proceeds on commercial airline flights. Glenis Zapata possessed a “Known Crew Member” badge and used her authority to help the traffickers move cash drug proceeds from the Midwest to the southern part of the U.S. and into Mexico, the indictment states. The traffickers also allegedly used other means to ship the money, including semi-trailer trucks and a private charter airplane that was seized by federal authorities in 2021 at the Gary/Chicago International Airport in Gary, Ind.
The two bank employees – Ilenis Zapata, 33, of Lafayette, Indiana, and Georgina Banuelos, 39, of Lafayette, Indiana – helped launder the drug proceeds by exchanging lower denominated bills for higher denominated bills, the indictment states. Ilenis Zapata and Banuelos, who worked together at a bank in Lafayette, Indiana, also knowingly and willfully failed to file currency reports for the transactions, as required under federal law, the indictment states.
The superseding indictment added Glenis Zapata, Ilenis Zapata, and Banuelos as defendants and renewed conspiracy and money laundering charges previously filed against 15 others, including the alleged leader of the drug trafficking organization, Oswaldo Espinosa, 41, of Mexico; the organization’s primary manager, Jorge Borbon-Ochoa, 46, of Mexico; and the head of its Chicago operations, Ricardo Tello, 37, of Mission, Texas. Espinosa’s organization allegedly transported the cocaine in wholesale quantities from Mexico to various U.S. cities, including Chicago, from 2018 to 2023. The traffickers used warehouses, garages, and stash houses in Chicago to receive and store the cocaine and cash, the indictment states.
Arraignments on the superseding charges have not yet been scheduled.
Joining DEA Chicago SAC Lyons and U.S. Attorney Pasqual in making the announcement were LaFonda Sutton-Burke, Director of the Chicago Field Office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Sean Fitzgerald, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of Homeland Security Investigations, and Justin Campbell, Special Agent-in-Charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation Chicago Field Office. Substantial assistance was provided by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Office of Inspector General and the Lafayette, Indiana Police Department. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew Erskine, Ashley Chung, and Adam Rosenbloom.
The case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles drug traffickers and other criminal offenders that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement against criminal networks.
The public is reminded that an indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
