CHICAGO — A man who kept a Lincoln Park stash house packed with suitcases full of pot and $1 million in cash admitted he ran a drug trafficking organization and laundered money by buying a fleet of luxury cars, prosecutors said.
Jonathan Tankson, of Evanston, pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to distributing more than 1,000 kilos of pot — and ferrying huge amounts of cash to California so he could buy truckloads of marijuana.
Twice a month, he would bring as much as $500,000 in cash by plane to California. He used it to buy tractor trailers full of pot that would be shipped to Chicago to be sold, according to his plea deal.
One of his stash houses for the pot was in Lincoln Park. Another was a penthouse apartment in the city's River West neighborhood, according to the deal.
When the Lincoln Park home was raided in December 2013, federal agents found $1 million in cash, 75 kilos of marijuana in suitcases and plastic bags and 9mm ammunition, according to the plea deal.
To launder the proceeds from the drug sales, he and an accomplice used an elaborate system to buy luxury cars through a fake name. He bought a $140,000 Porsche Cayenne Turbo S SUV, a $108,000 Mercedes-Benz S63 sedan, an $80,000 Audi A8 sedan and several other luxury cars, he admitted.
He also admitted that he coordinated with a network of distributors who bought the pot from him and then sold it themselves.
He faces up to 20 years in federal prison when sentenced Aug. 25 at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.
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