Los Angeles women sentenced to 21 months in prison, moved marijuana and cash from Mobile to California: DOJ

MOBILE, Alabama (WKRG) – A Los Angeles woman has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for her involvement as a “drug and money courier” for a California-based drug trafficking organization, according to a Department of Justice statement.

Ashley Yvonne Torres, 32, worked for an organization that “distributed kilograms of marijuana from the Los Angeles area to Mobile” and other cities. The DOJ said the organization used minors who “carried large amounts of marijuana” to Mobile and other cities on plane flights.

The smugglers would then bring “hundreds of thousands” of dollars worth of drugs back to California for the organization.

The DOJ said Torres gave a ‘co-conspirator’ 20 pounds of marijuana, $60,000 in cash and a gun at a Mobile hotel in October 2018. Torres then flew to California with $8,000 . Narcotics officers caught the “co-conspirator” in November 2018.

In June 2020, officers caught Torres with $60,000 in cash at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans. The money was hidden in the liner of Torres’ checked baggage. Torres admitted to moving the money to California as part of “the drug trafficking prosecution.”

A United States District Judge also ordered Torres to serve three years of probation after his prison sentence. Torres will undergo “drug testing and treatment” and pay $100 in special assessments.