San Diego money service business owner charged in murder-for-hire plot

A San Diego money service business owner was arrested on federal charges claiming he laundered drug money and hired a hitman to kill a businessman over an unpaid debt, the Department of Justice said on Thursday.SAN DIEGO (CN) — A Mexican man living in San Diego was arrested in Miami on Thursday in connection with a murder-for-hire scheme over an unpaid debt, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.Marcos Arturo Kleiman Tronllan, 40, was arrested by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents after investigators said he hired a hitman to murder a man who owed him money. Kleiman, who was a lawful permanent resident of the U.S., operated a registered money service business, MoneyFlip LLC, that offered cross-border currency exchange services.Kleiman was identified as a suspected money launderer during an ongoing investigation into money service businesses in San Diego and Imperial counties, the DOJ said in its press release. He previously owned and operated his money service business under the name MXN Financial LLC, which operated an international wholesale currency dealer and currency exchange.Investigators suspect Kleiman used his business to engage in cross-border currency transactions that evaded federal law filing requirements and to launder money from drug sales that were layered through money service businesses along the border.Undercover Homeland Security agents posing as drug traffickers contacted Kleiman in February 2026 to ask him to convert U.S. dollars they claimed to have come from drug sales into cryptocurrency, the DOJ press release said. Kleiman indicated he understood the money’s source, the release said.“Give me the major details. I need to know if … what you have is clean or if it’s dirty,” Kleiman reportedly told the agents. “I mean, I don’t get scared, dude.”Kleiman created an email account and shared its password with undercover Homeland Security agents, allowing them to communicate covertly by writing messages in the account’s draft folder rather than sending emails, the DOJ said. During these discussions, Kleiman is said to have asked the undercover agents if they could help recover an unpaid debt from a Mexican businessman and to kill the man.Kleiman reportedly told the agents he would pay $40,000 to kidnap and murder the man beginning with two $5,000 cash down payments. Kleiman arranged for a $5,000 cash deposit to one of the agents in San Diego in May, the press release said. The second deposit was arranged in early July after one of the undercover agents told him the victim would be left dead on the side of the road whether he paid the debt or not.The agents showed Kleiman three photographs and a video that purportedly showed the “victim” after he had been captured, tortured and killed. One photograph depicted a man lying in a field with a white banner covering his body that read, “Por ser rata,” translated as, “For being a thief.”One of the agents told Kleiman they needed to be paid. Kleiman arranged for the remaining $30,000 in the murder-for-hire payments to be made in cash and to an undercover agent’s crypto wallet, the DOJ release said.In total, Kleiman converted about $750,000 in U.S. currency into cryptocurrency that ultimately was transferred into an undercover agent’s crypto wallet, the DOJ release said. Kleiman charged a 10% fee for the transactions.The Trump administration has taken an aggressive stance on these types of businesses along the U.S.-Mexico border, subjecting them to increased scrutiny and reporting requirements in an effort to crack down on cartel money laundering. However, some money service business owners say that the new requirements are too burdensome.The investigation into Kleiman was part of an interagency collaboration that included the Internal Revenue Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, Imperial County Sheriff’s Office, and Brawley Police Department, among others, as part of the Trump administration’s Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads