Wife Of Bear Cocaine Dealer Sentenced For Money Laundering

Most parents want a better life for their kids. And that’s exactly what attorneys claim motivated Shakira Martinez of Bear, Delaware, to fall into a life of crime.

Martinez, the wife of one of the most significant cocaine traffickers in Delaware history, has now been sentenced to prison. She will spend nine years behind bars for money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and structuring bank transactions. Her husband, Omar Colon, who was also separately convicted in 2021 on related counts—conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute—was sentenced to 45 years. Both were found guilty in a 2022 trial.

Involvement

At her sentencing, the government claimed that Martinez concealed nearly a million dollars in drug proceeds, helping to create a drug empire for Colon. Without Martinez, the government argued, Colon’s success would not have been possible.

According to court records, beginning around 2009, Martinez and Colon incorporated a company in Delaware, called Zemi Property Management. They would go on to use the company to launder nearly a million dollars in drug proceeds. Money laundering is a term used to describe how money from illegal activity—”dirty money”—becomes legitimate, or clean, so that it can’t be traced.

The Scheme

Between 2009 and 2017, Martinez opened and controlled at least eight bank accounts at four different financial institutions to conduct business on behalf of Zemi. According to the government, she deposited the “dirty money” in those accounts, making cash deposits of over $300,000—sometimes conducting multiple daily transactions at different banks to hide her tracks. The company then used those funds to buy cashier’s checks to fund property purchases.

Martinez was personally involved in buying many of Zemi’s properties and was also responsible for collecting rent and mortgage payments. And according to evidence presented at trial, she was the primary contact between Zemi and its tax return preparer, providing the information he needed to attempt to legitimize the company.

During this time, Colon’s drug business was thriving. His drug sales generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in proceeds that he could not easily spend without attracting attention. By funneling Colon’s drug money into a “legitimate” real estate company, Martinez helped hide Colon’s drug activities from law enforcement.

Martinez also understood that the properties that she helped buy were not just a means of laundering money—they were part of the drug operation. Over the years, Martinez also engaged in specific acts relating to Colon’s drug activities, including bringing money to a drug deal, picking up drug proceeds, and renting a truck to transport kilograms of cocaine.

Martinez used the money to buy a family home in Delaware. The home included a swimming pool—and eventually an underground bunker. The Drug Enforcement Administration discovered the bunker, accessed by a tunnel behind a false fireplace, and used to hide a marijuana grow operation. The bunker and related tunnel were 2,000 square feet with 20-foot ceilings. “That tunnel was something DEA usually deals with out in the southwest part of our country,” Shawn Ellerman, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Philadelphia field, said at the time.

Martinez also purchased multiple high-value vehicles, including a brand-new Jeep Grand Cherokee and an Infiniti QX80.

The money proved to be her undoing. Special Agent in Charge Yury Kruty said, “IRS Criminal Investigation special agents are uniquely qualified to follow complex financial transactions and uncover the source of the illegal funds. Martinez and Colon employed multiple tactics to clean up their ill-gotten gains, but in the end, they could not outsmart the government.”

Martinez’s Family

The ability to provide well for her children, it was argued at sentencing, was an essential factor for Martinez’s criminal activity. Martinez was 16 when she moved out of her parents’ home because she was pregnant with her first child. Four years later, Martinez and Colon would have their second child. Martinez worked at an early age to provide for her children, earning her high school diploma and working several jobs.

The government alleged that even while she wanted to use the proceeds to make a better life for her family, she wasn’t above including family members in her scheme. Martinez allowed Colon to store drugs in a storage unit rented in her mother’s name. According to court documents, Martinez picked up drug money on the way to the park with her baby and went on a family beach outing with drug traffickers. And, at her parents’ request, their teenage daughter, Karina, conducted banking transactions and real estate transactions funded by drug proceeds—court documents make clear that the behavior had put her “at risk of being criminally charged as a co-conpirator” though she was not charged.

Continued Operations

At age 27, while Colon was serving a five-year prison sentence for cocaine trafficking, Martinez pursued a paralegal certificate from the University of Delaware—surely a sign that she was willing to turn things around. Only she didn’t. Even though Martinez was estranged from Colon for some time during and after his incarceration, she continued to launder the drug money. According to sentencing documents, during the five years that they were apart, she facilitated the purchase of 11 of 18 properties used in the money laundering scheme.

Colon was arrested on May 6, 2017, shortly after giving his cocaine supplier $382,045 in cash in a Red Roof Hotel parking lot in Newark, Delaware. According to police and prosecutors, Colon was connected to the Sinaloa cartel. The Sinaloa cartel, or Sinaloa Federation, is led by imprisoned Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman, commonly called “El Chapo.

Colon was convicted in July 2022. His second trial—together with Martinez—focused on financial crimes. The case was investigated by Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, and the DEA Philadelphia Division.

Sentencing

Before imposing the sentence, Circuit Judge Bibas noted that money laundering is a “huge issue that fuels the drug trade with all its harms.”

After sentencing, Thomas Hodnett, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Philadelphia Field Division, applauded the sentence, saying, “Martinez’s money laundering and structuring activities were the fuel that allowed her husband Colon to continue to purchase cocaine in furtherance of his drug-trafficking activities.”