EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — A 34-year-old South Carolina man has been sentenced to more than three years in federal prison for his role in a drug and money-laundering ring based in Oregon.
The Register-Guard reported that Noel Yaun apologized “to the court and to the United States of America” for his participation in the criminal enterprise, which involved local production of marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms for sale in 11 states.
Police and the IRS began investigating in 2008, when a Eugene bank employee reported that the ringleader, James Michael Walsh of Eugene, was making regular, suspicious cash deposits while reeking of fertilizer. Walsh is serving a four-year prison sentence.
Yaun pleaded guilty last fall to depositing nearly $495,000 during a seven-month period into Walsh’s bank accounts in South Carolina, where he previously lived.
