A former U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigator was sentenced to more than a decade in federal prison Wednesday in California for stealing more than $100,000 in smuggled drug money, authorities said.
Tyrone Cedric Duren, 50, was handed a sentence of 10 years and 8 months in a San Diego courtroom. He also was ordered to pay $275,000 and forfeit his home in Bonsall in San Diego County, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office.
Duren pleaded guilty last year to 19 charges, including money laundering, making false statements and tax evasion.
Prosecutors said Duren was investigating bulk cash smuggling when he stole money from people taking drug proceeds to Mexico.
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“Over several years, Duren used his position as a federal agent to place GPS trackers on vehicles used to transport proceeds from drug sales. Duren then took some of the drug money after it was seized, laundered it into his own accounts, and spent it on real estate and international travel," the U.S. attorney's office statement said.
In 2014, Duren stole more than $100,000 that was hidden in laundry detergent boxes in a car that was stopped and searched at a Border Patrol checkpoint, prosecutors said.
