NEW YORK (AP) — A former high-level agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and an associate have been charged with conspiring to launder millions of dollars and obtain military-grade firearms and explosives for a Mexican drug cartel, according to an indictment unsealed Friday in New York.
Paul Campo, 61, of Oakton, Virginia, who retired from the DEA in 2016 after a 25-year career, and Robert Sensi, 75, of Boca Raton, Florida, were caught in sting involving a law enforcement informant who posed as a member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, prosecutors said.
The cartel, also know as CJNG, was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. in February.
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said Campo betrayed his DEA career by helping the cartel, which he said was responsible for “countless deaths through violence and drug trafficking in the United States and Mexico.”
Campo and Sensi appeared Friday afternoon before a magistrate judge in New York, who ordered them detained without bail. Their lawyers entered not guilty pleas on their behalf.
Campo’s lawyer, Mark Gombiner, called the indictment “somewhat sensationalized and somewhat incoherent.” He denied the two men had agreed to explore obtaining weapons for the cartel.
Over the past year, Campo and Sensi agreed to launder about $12 million in drug proceeds for the cartel and converted about $750,000 in cash to cryptocurrency, thinking it was going to the group when it really went to the U.S. government, the indictment said. They also provided a payment for about 220 kilograms of cocaine they were told would be sold in the U.S. for about $5 million, thinking they would get a cut of the proceeds, prosecutors said.
The two men also said they would look into procuring commercial drones, AR-15 semiautomatic rifles, M4 carbines, grenade launchers and rocket-propelled grenades for the cartel, the indictment said.
Campo boasted about his law enforcement experience during conversations with the informant and offered to be a “strategist” for the cartel, authorities said. He began his career as a DEA agent in New York and rose to become deputy chief of financial operations for the agency, the indictment said.
Evidence in the case includes hours of recordings of the two men talking with the informant, as well as cellphone location data, emails and surveillance images, Assistant U.S. Attorney Varun Gumaste said in court Friday.
Sensi's attorney, Amanda Kramer, unsuccessfully argued that Sensi should be freed while he awaits trial, saying he wouldn't flee partly because he has multiple health problems, including injuries from a fall two months ago, early-stage dementia and Type II diabetes.
Sensi was convicted in the late 1980s and early 1990s of mail fraud, defrauding the government and stealing $2.5 million, said the prosecutor, Gumaste. He said evidence shows Sensi also was engaged in a scheme to procure military-grade helicopters for a Middle East country.
DEA Administrator Terrance Cole said in a statement that while Campo is no longer employed by the DEA, the allegations undermine trust in law enforcement.
The DEA has been roiled in recent years by several embarrassing instances of misconduct in its ranks. The Associated Press has tallied at least 16 agents over the past decade brought up on federal charges ranging from child pornography and drug trafficking to leaking intelligence to defense attorneys and selling firearms to cartel associates, revealing gaping holes in the agency’s supervision.
Starting in 2021, the agency placed new controls on how DEA funds can be used in money laundering stings, and warned agents they can now be fired for a first offense of misconduct if serious enough, a departure from prior administrations.
Campo and Sensi are charged with four conspiracy counts related to narcoterrorism, terrorism, narcotics distribution and money laundering.
Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut. Associated Press writer Joshua Goodman in Miami contributed to this report.
FILE - Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton talks on a phone as he exits court in New York, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 10, 2026--
Trustate is proud to announce that Leah Del Percio and Tara Faquir have been named to Inc.’s 2026 Female Founders 500, an annual list honoring the most dynamic women business leaders in the United States. The honor recognizes founders whose bold ideas, resilience, and execution are shaping the future of their industries.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260310669623/en/
The 2026 Female Founders honorees collectively generated approximately $12.3 billion in 2025 revenue and $12.2 billion in funding to date, underscoring the economic impact of women-led businesses across sectors.
Each year, Inc. editors evaluate applications through a rigorous, multi-round selection process. Founders are assessed on both quantitative performance metrics, including revenue growth, funding, sales, and audience size, as well as qualitative factors such as innovation, social impact, and brand momentum. The final list represents entrepreneurs who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and measurable progress over the past year. Previous honorees have included such game-changing leaders as Billie Jean King, Sallie Krawcheck, Serena Williams, and Emma Grede — all of whom have transformed their industries and broken barriers along the way.
"As a trusts and estates attorney, I've seen firsthand how fragmented and data-intensive legal practice can be—for professionals and for the families they serve. The legal industry has long lacked the infrastructure to surface, organize, and act on the data that matters most. We built Trustate to change that. We're a data company built for lawyers and law firms, giving practitioners the tools to uncover assets, streamline complex workflows, and deliver high-quality legal documents and work product more efficiently across the full scope of their practice. What drives us is something simple: better data and better tools mean better outcomes for clients during some of the most consequential moments of their lives," says Leah Del Percio, Trustate co-founder and CEO.
“We are incredibly honored to be named to Inc.’s Female Founders list, but what it really reflects is the work our team is doing to modernize an industry that hasn’t changed much in decades,” says Tara Faquir, Trustate co-founder and COO. “At Trustate, we’re focused on giving trusts and estates professionals better tools, better documents, and better data so they can serve families more effectively. The Great Wealth Transfer is underway, and our mission is to help professionals meet that moment with confidence.”
Honoree selection is also honed through the evaluation of the program’s advisory board, which includes Patty Arvielo, co-founder and CEO of New American Funding; Tiffany Dufu, president of the Tory Burch Foundation; Joy Mangano, co-founder and CEO of CleanBoss; Michelle Cordeiro Grant, founder and CEO of GORGIE; Sheila Lirio Marcelo, co-founder and CEO of Ohai.ai and founder of Care.com; and Melissa Mash, co-founder and CEO of Dagne Dover.
Since founding Trustate in 2020, Del Percio and Faquir have built a rapidly growing technology platform that’s redefining how lawyers manage their work. Through a series of product launches and strategic partnerships, Trustate is consistently introducing new tools that help professionals locate financial accounts, manage workflows, and produce high-quality estate planning and legal documents within a single system.
Today, Trustate supports more than 1,000 law firms and financial institutions nationwide. Trustate was started to help trusts and estates law firms operate more efficiently while strengthening their estate planning and administration practices. Professionals using the platform save about 400 hours per client and see an average bottom-line boost of $62,000 per firm annually.
Across the platform, Trustate has supported the creation of over 250,000 legal documents and the discovery of $32.5 million in previously unknown assets. It has also facilitated more than 4,200 asset and liability searches, identified nearly 2,000 liabilities, and helped firms complete tens of thousands of tasks that would previously have been done manually.
"Each year, we are increasingly amazed by the extraordinary leaders on our Inc. Female Founders 500 list,” says Bonny Ghosh, editorial director at Inc. “The honorees on this year’s list include innovators in AI, beauty and wellness trendsetters winning devoted fans, and nonprofit leaders making a real impact in their communities. Together, they’re showing all of us what trailblazing female leadership looks like.”
Several honorees will be featured in Inc. magazine’s Spring print issue, on newsstands March 17, 2026. To see the complete list of honorees, please visit: https://www.inc.com/female-founders/2026.
About Inc.
Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit www.inc.com.
About Trustate
Trustate is the only all-in-one technology platform built for trusts and estates professionals, bringing together the entire estate lifecycle–from estate planning document drafting, trust funding, asset and liability discovery, and probate–into a single modern system. Built to replace multiple subscriptions to outdated tools, Trustate helps firms streamline complex estate work, uncover critical financial information, and operate more efficiently. For more information, visit www.trustate.com.
Tara Faquir (Left), Leah Del Percio (Right)
