JOHN RUCH
One of the men arrested in a dramatic 2006 federal raid of a South Street shop was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison in January for dealing cocaine and laundering drug money, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
The now-defunct Boston Envio de Valores at 146A South St. was raided by FBI, IRS and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in August 2006. The raid followed a two-year undercover operation in which cooper-ating witnesses bought drugs and handed over large amounts of cash—presented as being drug-dealing profits—for laundering.
Claudio Tejeda Andujar, 35, pleaded guilty last year to selling about 1 kilogram of cocaine to a cooperat-ing witness in 2004 and 2005. Andujar also pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder drug money by wiring it to the Dominican Republic.
The JP raid was coordinated with another raid in the Dominican Republic on the other end of the money laun-dering business.
Boston Envio appeared to be an unusual business for years. Part of its operation was money transfers. A large portion of the shop also served as a men’s clothing store, though its stock at one point shortly before the raid consisted solely of a few belts hanging from a rack. Several men usually were standing around inside the shop.
In fact, according to the federal agencies, Boston Envio was laundering drug money. Between 2004 and 2006, the shop handled millions of dollars in money transfers, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
The former Boston Envio storefront is now home to the Botanica San Miguel—which was operating in the building’s basement unit at the time of the raid—and the community orchestra A Far Cry.