Money laundering charge added to cocaine dealing accusations

FORT WAYNE, Ind. ---From January through April, 747 people in Allen County were arrested for drugs, either dealing or possession.

It’s the second biggest category in state arrest data after traffic offenses.

Arthur Cooper, 73, was charged with dealing cocaine and money laundering.

But there’s no category for money laundering, although the crime exists in state code. 

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.

A money laundering conviction appears to be rare. State prison statistics show that no one is currently incarcerated for money laundering .

But somehow a 73-year-old man who lives in low income, senior apartments in downtown Fort Wayne copped three charges for money laundering, along with eight more counts for drug dealing and felony firearm and drug possession.

Arthur Cooper, the septuagenarian whose latest arrest reflects a long, some might say professional, career in drug dealing, was taken into custody in mid-May at a New Haven Marathon gas station in the 7500 block of State Road 930. The officer said he saw Cooper exiting a white Ford Explorer, court documents said.

The driver of the Ford Explorer walked off when he saw the police. After officers discovered he had a warrant, they arrested him as well.

Cooper’s arrest occurred May 13 after the FWPD conducted three controlled buys with a confidential informant. Each buy produced a small amount of crack cocaine, the poor man’s coke. 

When Cooper’s apartment on Ewing Street was searched, police found 104.2 grams of a substance that tested positive for cocaine, 25.2 grams of methamphetamine, digital scales and sandwich baggies, the drug amounts and the two other items indicative of someone dealing drugs, court documents said.

The Ford Explorer yielded a black Smith & Wesson .380 handgun, a small amount of cocaine or crack cocaine and five white oblong pills with “M367” on them that were found to be acetaminophen and hydrocodone bitartrate. The first is an over-the-counter painkiller and the other, a prescription substance commonly known as Vicodin, according to online sources.

The drugs and the gun were in a brown bag where officers also found a Chase Bank receipt for Cooper, but no indication that any amount was linked to an account in the Cayman Islands or a Swiss bank account or Chinese operation, at least not according to the probable cause. In his wallet, there was a Chase bank card.

Court documents contain no mention of a shell corporation or hidden assets or any of the tricks money launderers use.

However, money laundering, according to the Indiana code, can be as simple as acquiring money from a criminal activity.

 “Indiana Code 35-45-15-5(a)(1), (occurs when) a person commits money laundering if they knowingly or intentionally acquire, receive, conceal, possess, transfer, or transport the proceeds of criminal activity. 

In the past two weeks, four others were charged with drug dealing, but not money laundering, according to online court documents.  Is it for lack of a bank receipt? 

Those charged are Trentin Clodfelter, 24, two counts of dealing in cocaine or narcotic drug level 3 and 4 and cocaine possession; Quinten Young, 32, three counts dealing in cocaine; Erica Castillo,37, Level 4 methamphetamine dealing; and, Jeffrey Burnett, 55, two counts dealing cocaine and cocaine possession.

The feds are also in for Cooper. Fraud charges were added this week on the Allen County Sheriff’s website.

If fraud equals money laundering, the math doesn’t add up. There are three money laundering charges and only two bank items; a bank receipt and a bank card. Maybe, the charges stem from three CI buys.

Cooper has a hearing Wednesday, June 4. He’s sitting at the Allen County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail, but likely won’t be able to bond out. He’s now a federal inmate and the U.S. Marshalls are in charge.

Cooper may have to give up his luxe Ewing Street apartment for a different crib.