Chicago DEA office’s most-wanted list adds cocaine-trafficking suspect Oswaldo Espinosa

Espinosa is a fugitive facing charges of drug conspiracy and money-laundering, accused of shipping thousands of pounds of cocaine to Chicago and other U.S. cities.

SHARE Chicago DEA office’s most-wanted list adds cocaine-trafficking suspect Oswaldo Espinosa
Close up photo of Oswaldo Espinosa

Oswaldo Espinosa.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

A Mexican man suspected of shipping thousands of pounds of cocaine to Chicago and other U.S. cities was placed on a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration list of wanted fugitives Wednesday.

Oswaldo Espinosa, who’s about 40 and from Minatitlán, Mexico, on the country’s Gulf Coast in Veracruz state, is wanted on charges of drug conspiracy and money-laundering.

Espinosa and 14 others were indicted in July in federal court in Chicago in connection with more than 1,200 pounds of cocaine seized between March 2021 and March 2022 from his operatives in Chicago, Indiana, Texas and Florida, according to prosecutors.

Authorities say a cocaine-laden jet that was confiscated about two years ago at the Gary/Chicago International Airport was connected to Espinosa’s operation.

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