PROVIDENCE – A former philanthropy officer for the United Way of Rhode Island Inc. has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for her leading role in laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars of her then-boyfriend’s fentanyl trafficking money, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah B. Foley announced Feb. 6.
Carolina Correa, 35, of Cranston, was sentenced on Feb. 4 by U.S. District Court in Boston Judge Leo T. Sorokin to 42 months in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release.
In addition to the jail time, Correa was also ordered to pay a $150,000 fine and forfeiture of $350,000. In July 2025, Correa pleaded guilty to one count of money-laundering conspiracy.
Correa was named major gifts officer and young leaders circle manager at United Way of Rhode Island in June 2015 and was a philanthropy officer for donor relations
at the time of her arrest in 2023. She had been recognized by CNN as one of its Top 20 Young People Who Rock and by Hispanic Magazine as a Top 15 Young Hispanic Icon of America. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Assumption College.
Her employment with United Way was terminated in early 2024, said United Way of Rhode Island spokesperson Michael Cerio. She was placed on administrative leave in November 2023 and the United Way of Rhode Island cooperated fully with the DOJ’s investigation and initiated its own internal review.
“The DOJ advised United Way of Rhode Island that the charges against Ms. Correa did not involve her work with the organization,” the nonprofit said in a statement. “In addition, our internal review, supported by robust controls related to accounting, information technology and fundraising, found no indication that the organization was exposed to criminal activity. Following the completion of the DOJ’s investigation and our internal review, Ms. Correa’s employment with United Way of Rhode Island was terminated.”
Correa was the leader of a sophisticated multistate scheme to launder $450,000 in fentanyl trafficking proceeds derived by her then-boyfriend, Jasdrual Perez. Perez was sentenced in December 2024 to 22.5 years in prison for his role as the leader of a large-scale fentanyl trafficking conspiracy responsible for manufacturing and distributing millions of fentanyl pills made to look like oxycodone and percocet.
[caption id="attachment_516285" align="alignleft" width="166"]
A PHOTOGRAPH posted by Carolina Correa on her Instagram account after she successfully moved $450,000 of her then-boyfriend’s drug proceeds. /COURTESY OFFICE OF U.S. ATTORNEY FOR MASSACHUSETTS[/caption]
Correa was recruited by Perez in late 2021 or early 2022 to help hide his drug proceeds. She contacted a friend opening a Massachusetts marijuana dispensary who was looking for investors. In exchange for bringing in investors, Correa was promised an ownership stake of the dispensary and was given the title of chief financial officer.
In January 2022, Correa claimed she had secured investors - a North Carolina real estate investor with whom she had a long‑standing personal relationship and his associate. Correa then had a friend drive $350,000 of Perez’s drug proceeds from Rhode Island to the investors in North Carolina. Financial records show the investors later wired a total of $350,000 to the dispensary’s attorney, who then transferred the funds into the dispensary’s business account.
To further legitimize the scheme, Correa used her work email to communicate with the North Carolina investors. She drafted sham loan agreements and promissory notes for herself, the dispensary CEO, and the investors to sign, disguising the true source of the funds.
Bank records also confirmed Correa and Perez laundered an additional $100,000 of drug proceeds into the dispensary’s bank account, using the business account of a Rhode Island real estate investment company owned by one of Perez’s friends.
Correa used her professional reputation and public image to appear that she was legitimately securing “investors” in the marijuana dispensary while, simultaneously, in intercepted communications, she regularly described the hustle to “clean” Perez’s drug money for her own financial benefit through various financial and real estate transactions.
She posted a racy photo on social media after successfully moving $450,000 of Perez’s drug proceeds.
“Correa thought she could outsmart the system and law enforcement while she was laundering at least half a million dollars in drug proceeds,” Foley said. “This case should serve as a warning to others that our efforts to curb drug addiction doesn’t just involve prosecuting drug dealers, it also involves arresting their financial partners in the trafficking conspiracy.”
