U.S. Justice Department secures 15-year sentence in Alabama money laundering case

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Alabama money laundering sentence

Highlights

Mohammed Zohair Adi received a 15-year prison sentence, $50,000 fine, and three years supervised release for laundering millions and giving false testimony.
Adi laundered drug proceeds critical to a trafficking group moving over 1,000 kilograms of high-grade marijuana from California to Alabama, utilizing corporate entities and bank accounts.
Adi pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy and later to providing false testimony, with ten co-defendants already sentenced and Navjit Bhullar's sentencing set for June 29.

Sentence details and court findings

As reported by the U.S. Department of Justice, Mohammed Zohair Adi, 58, was sentenced in the Southern District of Alabama to 180 months in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering and for providing false testimony in court. The court also imposed a $50,000 fine and a three-year term of supervised release.

Prosecutors said Adi helped launder millions of dollars for a drug trafficking organization that moved more than 1,000 kilograms of high-grade marijuana from California to Alabama, often using couriers on commercial flights. Court documents said he used multiple corporate entities and bank accounts to process proceeds from drug sales, and in some instances structured transactions to avoid currency transaction reporting requirements.

The court said laundering drug proceeds was critical to the operation of the trafficking group and noted Adi's leadership role in the conspiracy. Authorities said some of the funds were used to support drug trafficking activity and maintain California real estate, including properties used as marijuana grow sites.

False testimony and wider enforcement impact

Adi pleaded guilty to the money laundering conspiracy on Jan. 30, 2023. Prosecutors said that after that plea, he falsely testified at a March 14, 2023 detention hearing for co-defendant Navjit Bhullar, despite a court order barring communication with co-defendants on case-related matters.

Authorities said Adi told the court he met Bhullar only once during pretrial release, in mid-January 2023, but later evidence showed he also met him in February 2023 at an office in Sacramento, California, with others present, where they discussed the criminal case and Adi's guilty plea. Prosecutors also said he later lied to the DEA about those contacts, and he pleaded guilty on March 2, 2026 to providing false testimony under oath before the court.

The DEA investigated the cases, while trial attorneys from the Justice Department's Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Alabama handled the prosecution. Co-defendant Navjit Bhullar is scheduled to be sentenced on June 29, and 10 co-defendants have already been sentenced.

Our earlier coverage of the DOJ’s Anti-Weaponization Fund explained how a settlement tied to Trump v. IRS would create a $1.776 billion mechanism to review claims of alleged government “weaponization” and provide eligible relief. We noted the fund’s oversight rules, reporting requirements, and timeline through 2028, as well as the provision that any unused balance would revert to the federal government.

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