WILMINGTON, Del. – A federal judge on Monday sentenced a Delaware man to 45 years behind bars for conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and various other drug and money laundering offenses.
David C. Weiss, U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware, said in a release that Omar Morales Colon, 45, was one of the biggest drug traffickers in the history of the state of Delaware, and that Colon stood ready to use violence if necessary to protect his drug business.
Colon was convicted of the drug and money laundering offenses following a pair of jury trials in September 2021 and July 2022. His wife, Shakira Martinez, age 44, was also convicted of the money laundering offenses in the July trial; her sentencing hearing is scheduled for February 2023.
According to court records and evidence presented at trial, between 2009 and 2017, Colon and Martinez laundered over $1 million in drug proceeds through the purchase of real estate properties in Delaware and Pennsylvania using their company, Zemi Property Management. They deposited drug money into several different bank accounts – and asked their friends and family members to do the same – and then used those funds to buy cashier’s checks that funded the property purchases.
Colon was arrested on May 6, 2017, shortly after giving his cocaine supplier $382,045 in cash in a hotel parking lot in Newark, Delaware. The Drug Enforcement Administration subsequently discovered a secret underground bunker beneath Colon’s home, accessed by a tunnel behind a false fireplace, in which Colon hid a marijuana grow operation.