A court has rejected a motion to dismiss a money laundering case centered around Pablo Escobar’s wife and son in Argentina.
The former Medellin Cartel’s family members presented themselves inside a Federal Court of Appeals courtroom on Tuesday for their alleged involvement with a Colombian cartel.
The drug baron’s widow, Victoria Eugenia Henao Vallejo, 57, and his son, Juan Pablo Escobar Henao, 41, are accused of acting as the middle persons between jailed Colombian farmer Jose Piedrahita Ceballo and an Argentine lawyer and successful business developer, Mateo Corvo Dolcet.
Investigators with the Drug Enforcement Agency and in Argentina estimated $15 million were shifted among an eatery and waterhole.
Pablo Escobar’s son Juan Pablo Escobar Henao will be facing trial in Argentina for his involvement in a money laundering scheme
Victoria Eugenia Henao Vallejo, widow of Pablo Escobar, had to give up $1.2 million in assets when she presented herself in court in June on charges of diverting $15million in drug profits
Argentine authorities have also implicated football star Mauricio “Chicho” Serna, who played on the Colombian national team and who once starred for Argentina’s Boca Juniors.
Under Dolcet’s business savvy, profits generated through the sale of drugs from Ceballo’s illicit network were then diverted in Argentina, according El Pitazo.
Investigators in Argentina and with the Drug Enforcement Agency estimated $15 million were shifted among two eateries and waterholes.
Escobar’s family fell under the spotlight of Argentine justice system on September 29, 2017 after a popular bar owned by Dolcet was raided along with 10 other restaurants.
The widow wife and son of the former Medellin Cartel boss became involved with a former Colombian associate who was arrested in September 2017
While Dolcet was detained in ritzy town of Pilar, Argentina, Piedrahita Ceballo fell during a joint operation between Colombian law enforcement officials and the Drug Enforcement Agency during a dinner in Bogota, Colombia that very same day.
Piedrahita Ceballos, who found his riches in the farming business somehow ended up in the narco world, networking with the Cali Cartel in the 1990s as well as Escobar.
Jose Piedrahita Ceballo, second from left, is a Colombian farmer who in the past worked closely with the Cali and Medellin Cartels, and was arrested for laundering $15million
Argentine authorities say they have proof that connects Mateo Corvo Dolcet to a Colombian farmer and Pablo Escobar’s wife and son in a multi-million dollar scam
![Medellin Cartel boss Pablo Escobar attends a soccer match with his oldest son, Juan Pablo [center] and wife Victoria Eugenia Henao Vallejo [right]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/11/28/23/6769752-6439849-image-a-30_1543447520102.jpg)
Medellin Cartel boss Pablo Escobar attends a soccer match with his oldest son, Juan Pablo [center] and wife Victoria Eugenia Henao Vallejo [right]
Former Colombian national team member Mauricio “Chicho” Serna is also being investigated
Inside Dolcet’s home, authorities found a note that tied Henao Vallejo, who changed her name to Maria Isabel Santos Caballero when she fled Colombia in 1994 and resettled in Argentina with her son, who today is known as Juan Sebastian Marroquin Santos.
In February, Dolcet was placed under home arrest after paying a $260,000 bail bond.
The damaging piece of evidence revealed that Pablo Escobar’s widow and oldest son charged a 4.5 percent kickback payment for all of the profits that Piedrahita Ceballo was able to produce.
In June, an Argentine judge charged the mother-son duo with money laundering and ordered the forfeiture of their assets worth $1.2 million.
A trial date has not been set yet.