Tip to Cops Investigating Money Laundering: Do Not Launder Money

You will get caught. From the "Really Coulda Seen This Coming" South Florida crime files, we have 32-year-old Fort Lauderdale detective Jorge Reyes, who was assigned to a special task force aimed at breaking up money-laundering rings. Such a job is vital to bringing down all sorts of criminal enterprises, especially organized crime. That is, if the police officer assigned to investigate the money laundering is not laundering money himself, as Reyes has been accused of doing.

His dirty deeds after the jump.

An eight-year vet, Reyes was charged with laundering more than $100,000 in proceeds from illegal activity over a 12-month period, and he pleaded guilty yesterday. Though the case is sealed, the South Florida Times cites a source who reports that Reyes recruited Luis E. Calvo Jr., who pleaded guilty last year for the same crime. According to that report, Reyes gave Calvo privileged information that would help the duo avoid getting caught by surveillance. 

Then in October, Reyes and Calvo were caught by the very surveillance they probably should have known enough to avoid-- cameras in the parking lot of the Broward Mall in Plantation. Calvo was reportedly picking up a large sum of cash as Reyes watched from another vehicle. It sounds like a plot from The Sopranos, where everyone's got dirty hands, but only the cops are dumb enough to get caught.

Calvo agreed to testify against Reyes.

Can you guess where Reyes is now, after he's admitted being yet another corrupt South Florida cop and awaits sentencing?

If you guessed "jail," you're sadly naive. No, jail is no place for a crooked cop in these parts (cough Ken Jenne cough). Reyes was released without bail, on his own recognizance.

-- Michael J. Mooney