A federal judge set bond at $100,000 Thursday for a San Juan man. Fernando Mireles, 32, is accused of laundering cartel cash through his used clothing business. He faces charges of smuggling and money laundering tied to La Nueva Familia Michoacana, a Mexican drug cartel.

Chief U.S. District Judge Randy Crane set the bond with a $50,000 cash deposit. Prosecutors wanted Mireles held without any bond at all. They said he could run to Mexico and hide there.

"I know he can come up with $50,000, given his resources," Crane said in court.

The case matters here in South Texas because it shows how deep cartel money can reach into everyday businesses. Ropa usada, or used clothing, is a normal trade across the Rio Grande Valley. Federal agents say cartels are using some of these businesses to clean drug money and buy guns.

Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested Mireles on July 24. They raided his warehouse on South Jackson Road in Pharr. Mireles ran the business through a company called Dorado LLC, which used the names "Bodegita RGV" and "Dorado Transport." He set up the company in 2021, three years after graduating from Hidalgo Early College High School.

Agents also searched the home Mireles shared with his wife, Yarely Sanchez Carbajal, in San Juan. They found $86,000 in cash and four guns inside. A magistrate judge later ordered Sanchez Carbajal held without bond. She has no legal status in the United States.

Mireles told agents he shipped used clothes to Monterrey, Puebla and other Mexican cities. Customers paid into a Mexican bank account, and Mireles moved the cash into his own accounts here. He said he sent one or two shipments a week, each one worth up to $200,000 in used clothes. Agents could not find any paperwork showing he filed the required export forms.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Patricia Cook Profit told the court Mireles admitted buying a Ford F-250 truck and two guns for the cartel. Agents later recovered those guns in Mexico. Profit called the amount of money involved "substantial sums."

"Both he and his wife admitted that the cartels control the used clothing business in Mexico," Profit wrote in a court motion.

Mireles' attorney, David Lindenmuth of McAllen, pushed back hard on the flight risk claim. He said his client is a U.S. citizen with no criminal record and three young kids who need him.

"Mr. Mireles has never been in trouble before," Lindenmuth told the judge.

An HSI agent testified that the government detained and deported Mireles' mother to Mexico after the raid. Judge Crane said that made Mexico an unlikely place for Mireles to run.

"Seems like the last place he wants to go is Mexico," Crane said.

The used clothing trade is common across the Rio Grande Valley. Businesses buy secondhand clothes cheap from groups like Goodwill and Planet Aid. They sell them to buyers from Mexico by the pound or the pallet. Mexico limits how much used clothing can legally cross the border, so some businesses skip the paperwork. Federal agents say cartels have moved in to control parts of that trade and use it to hide drug profits.

The U.S. State Department named La Nueva Familia Michoacana a terrorist group in 2025. Officials say the cartel uses drones and bombs to control towns in Michoacan, Mexico.

Mireles first appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Juan F. Alanis in July. Pretrial officers recommended a $50,000 bond. Alanis set it at $75,000 instead, with a $7,500 cash deposit. Prosecutors appealed that ruling, arguing Mireles was too much of a flight risk to release at all.

Judge Crane held a new hearing Thursday. He raised the bond to $100,000, with half of that due in cash up front.

"I want it to be a pinch if he leaves," Crane said.

Mireles remains in federal custody in South Texas while he works to post the bond. His case is part of a wider federal push looking at cartel ties to used clothing warehouses across the Valley. More arrests and charges tied to that investigation are still working through the McAllen federal courthouse.