New Orleans lawyer gets probation on money-laundering charge
A New Orleans lawyer who received several marijuana shipments through the mail has been sentenced to two years of probation after pleading guilty to a single charge of money laundering.
Cory Morton, 37, was arrested last month after a team of federal, state and local law enforcement agents raided his Magazine Street apartment, the New Orleans Advocate reports.
The raid was conducted after postal inspectors intercepted a half-dozen packages containing marijuana that had been addressed to Morton at a mailing center near his home. When Morton picked up the packages, undercover agents, who had staked out the location, followed him home.
At the time of his arrest, agents found 20 pounds of marijuana, several dozen prescription pills, an assortment of drug paraphernalia and more than $70,000 in cash hidden in envelopes in Morton’s apartment, the Advocate says.
Morton’s live-in girlfriend, Molly Holmes, who was also arrested, pleaded guilty last week to possession of marijuana and was sentenced to six months of probation.
Morton worked for several years at the New Orleans firm Taggart Morton, where his father, James R. Morton, also works as head of the firm’s real estate and oil and gas sections, according to the Advocate.
A representative for the firm told the newspaper Thursday that the younger Morton no longer works there.
