West Texas Attorney Found Guilty of Plans to Launder $600 Million in Drug Money for Mexican Cartel

A West Texas attorney has been found guilty of conspiring to launder nearly $600 million in drug money, The Associated Press reports.

In the real-life "Breaking Bad" scenario, Marco Antonio Delgado came up with a scheme to launder the money for the now-disbanded Milenio Mexican drug cartel in 2007 and 2008.

Prosecutors used evidence from phone calls made by Delgado to other members of the conspiracy, as well as testimony from a former associate and federal agents.

Federal agents also testified that after Delgado was arrested with $1 million, he confessed and agreed to cooperate but continued moving drug money behind his handlers' backs.

The former Carnegie Mellon University trustee pled not guilty and said the evidence was fabricated.

He told jurors during the fourth day of his trial that federal agents have lied and misrepresented facts or oversimplified matters in his case, according to the AP.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had previously testified that after Delgado was arrested in 2007 with $1 million, he confessed and agreed to cooperate.

In his testimony, Delgado claimed he didn't know that any of the money he handled was tainted by drug trafficking and didn't learn about its true origin until after he was rearrested in 2012.

"I never discussed a $600 million amount with any ICE agent," he told prosecutors Thursday.

"I did not know the funds were drug-related or illegal, neither were the ones from Chicago," he said.

Witnesses have described Delgado as a person who lied to a girlfriend about having cancer in order to break off the relationship, or telling one girlfriend that the money his other girlfriend deposited in the first woman's account--so that it could not be traced to him--came from a family business, according to the AP.

Delgado had given a $250,000 endowment for a Carnegie Mellon scholarship named after him to assist Hispanic students. He also was a regular contributor to the El Paso Symphony Orchestra and a member of a local educational foundation.