Drug dealer Alexandre de Basseville sentenced to 20 years in Prison

Alexandre de Basseville, 36, of Los Angeles, California, and
Geneva, Switzerland, was sentenced today to 240 months in prison
and ordered to forfeit $528,500, after he pleaded guilty to
conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to distribute
MDMA (“Ecstasy”). Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attorney for
the Eastern District of Virginia, made the announcement after
sentencing by United States District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee.

De Basseville and his co-defendant, Bruno Cavelier d’Esclavelles,
45, of Los Angeles, were arrested as part of the Drug Enforcement
Administration’s “Operation Director’s Cut” after a two-year
undercover investigation into international money laundering. d’
Esclavelles was sentenced to 180 months in prison and ordered to
forfeit $125,000 on December 15, 2006. According to court
documents, between July 2004 and June 2006, de Basseville and d’
Esclavelles met repeatedly with undercover agents posing as
international drug traffickers in various locations including: Arlington,
Virginia; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; Amsterdam; the
Netherlands; and, Geneva, Switzerland. During these meetings, de
Basseville and d’Esclavelles negotiated to launder more than
$20,000,000 in drug proceeds and to import and distribute more
than 500,000 Ecstasy pills. On two occasions, de Basseville and d’
Esclavelles took cash, totaling $300,000, which they believed to be
proceeds of drug trafficking and laundered it using their Los
Angeles business, Limelight Films, Inc. In February 2006, de
Basseville and d’Esclavelles arranged the shipment of a package
containing 10,000 Ecstasy pills obtained in the Netherlands to the
United States. De Basseville and d’Esclavelles were arrested on
June 1, 2006, in Arlington, Virginia, while meeting with undercover
agents.

"The trail of dirty money is very hard to conceal,” said United States
Attorney Rosenberg. “Here, two drug dealers and international
money launderers are going to jail for a long time because federal
agents and prosecutors relentlessly pursued their transactions."

This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration;
the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Internal Revenue Service;
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives;
Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Customs Border Patrol;
Arlington County Police Department; and Metropolitan (D.C.) Police
Department. The United States Attorney’s Office also received
considerable assistance from law enforcement authorities in the
Netherlands and Switzerland. The case was prosecuted by Assistant
United States Attorneys James Trump and Daniel Grooms.