Another money laundering charge for another drug dealer - a trend?

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---Yet another money laundering charge for an accused drug dealer.

Leon Lanaila Harris, 51, who lives in a small home near Study Park southwest of downtown, was charged in March with three counts dealing in a narcotic drug, a level 4 felony; unlawful firearm possession by a felon, also a Level 4 felony,  and three counts money laundering, Level 6. 

Leon Harris is the second person to get money laundering charges on top of drug dealing.

On June 2, detectives and the Fort Wayne Police Department’s Emergency Services Team or SWAT arrived at Harris’s home with a search warrant. According to police, Harris was dealiong out of his residence.

The search turned up a yellowish pill in a plastic baggie that tested for methamphetamine, resulting in a felony possession charge and a stolen black Glock 43X pistol on the kitchen table, court documents said. 

During an interivew, Harris told the officers that the pill was Ecstasy/MDMA and that it was his pill.

Harris was convicted of cocaine dealing in 1998, court documents said. He is the second out of six people in the last two weeks charged with drug dealing to catch money laundering charges.

In Indiana, money laundering is a Level 6 felony, but can be enhanced to a Level 5 or Level 4 felony “depending on the value of the proceeds and the intent behind the actions,” state code says.

Harris has a hearing Wednesday (June 3) in Allen Superior Court.