Undercover sting operation at Warren County Target nets $320,000-plus and guilty plea to money laundering by Mexican drug cartel operative

Through mid-2021, a drug cartel courier used the Warren County Target store location as a drop-off spot for $320,840 in three bags of cash, according to a Washington Post article published Wednesday, August 24. However, the courier was unaware that it was undercover law enforcement there to accept the money on three separate occasions at the perhaps ironically named Crooked Run Plaza shopping center off Interstate-66’s Front Royal exit.

The Post, in a Metro page lead story, reported on the courier’s Alexandria, VA federal court appearance Tuesday, August 23, at which Jorge Orozco-Sandoval, 35, plead guilty to a money-laundering charge that carries up to 20 years in prison.

The money he delivered, $129,100 in June 2021; $95,500 in July 2021; and $96,240 in September 2021, would facilitate a drug trafficking enterprise that is ongoing, according to court documents quoted in the article. He will be sentenced on November 29.

According to the Post, Orozco-Sandoval worked for the “Jalisco New Generation Cartel” (CJNG), one of the most violent and powerful Mexican drug cartels. Despite being a relatively young cartel, “formally founded” in 2011, the Post reported that researchers at the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism estimated its assets at over $20 billion. The cartel’s founder – known as El Mencho – is one of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA’s) most-wanted fugitives, with a $10-million price on his head.

The Justice Department calls the cartel “one of the five most dangerous transnational criminal organizations in the world” known for quasi-military tactics, the use of drones, and high-powered weapons to attack rival cartels for control of portions of Mexico, the Post reported. It is described as distributing “tons of cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl-based heroin into the United States.”

Orozco-Sandoval was known to local law enforcement in the region, having served a prison term in Maryland for drug possession with intent to distribute. He was deported to Mexico in 2010.

Royal Examiner reached out to the town police and county sheriff’s office to see if they were involved in the operation. Sheriff Mark Butler said only, “We work with all agencies on all types of cases. Beyond that, I have no comment.” We had not received a response from FRPD by publication. It is likely this was a DEA or DEA-led operation.

(Norma Jean Shaw and Roger Bianchini contributed to this story)