Texas Man Sentenced for Cocaine Trafficking and Money Laundering

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A Houston man was sentenced today to 15 years in prison for conspiring to distribute up to 15 kilograms of cocaine and conspiring to commit money laundering.

According to court documents, between June 2014 and November 2016, Naleth Vongsengchanh, 51, engaged in a conspiracy to traffic kilogram quantities of cocaine to the Virginia region for redistribution and to launder the proceeds. In the beginning of the conspiracy, Vongsengchanh resided in the Virginia region and sold cocaine locally before moving to Houston. Beginning in January 2015, Vongsengchanh began providing other individuals with kilogram quantities of cocaine to be couriered from Texas to the Virginia region by car.

Additionally, Vongsengchanh and his spouse, Oksana Vovk, utilized numerous bank accounts to launder the drug proceeds stemming from the cocaine trafficking. One of the utilized accounts was for an illegitimate business known as Stylish Traveler LLC through which Vongsengchanh and Vovk laundered over $78,000. In addition to the laundering of the proceeds, Vongsengchanh received payment for cocaine via other individuals transporting bulk cash currency for him and Vovk from the Virginia region to Texas.

Vongsengchanh is a career offender with a lengthy criminal history to include felony convictions for voluntary manslaughter while armed, assault with a dangerous weapon, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and two convictions for possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.

Voyk pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and was sentenced to over two years in prison.

The case was investigated as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF), Operation Russian Roulette. The OCDETF program is a federal multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the nation’s illegal drug supply.

G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Mark Herring, Attorney General for Virginia; Nick Proffitt, U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Virginia; Colonel James Morris, Vienna Chief of Police; Colonel Edwin C. Roessler Jr., Fairfax County Chief of Police; Jesse R. Fong, Special Agent in Charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Washington Field; Raymond Villanueva, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C.; Michael L. Brown, Alexandria Chief of Police; and M. Jay Farr, Arlington County Chief of Police, made the announcement after sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney General Karolina Klyuchnikova prosecuted the case.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:20-cr-33.