DEA arrests daughter of beauty supply store owner

Photo: South Tex Beauty Supply Facebook

The Drug Enforcement Administration on Thursday arrested the daughter of the owner of South Tex Beauty Supply, which has been at the center of a federal money laundering investigation since early 2018.

Richard Sanchez, DEA assistant special agent in charge of McAllen, said authorities arrested Daisy Yannette Suprise at the McAllen business.

Court records indicate she was scheduled to make a first appearance in front of a federal magistrate judge Friday morning.

Daisy Suprise, along with her mother, Maria Estela Suprise, and Yolanda Peña, an employee of South Tex Beauty Supply, are all charged with money laundering.

Criminal complaints and Sanchez indicate that DEA undercover agents working with confidential sources investigated the trio for laundering more than $2 million in drug proceeds from across Texas.

The complaint against Daisy Suprise alleges she handled drug money from a courier who was actually an undercover DEA agent.

The day the DEA arrested Maria Suprise at South Tex Beauty Supply, Feb. 23, the charging document says agents found $11,000 inside her purse.

“M. Suprise stated that the currency belonged to another co-conspirator, and that she had taken it home with her,” the complaint states.

DEA agents also say they found $6,000 in Daisy Suprise’s purse, which the woman claimed was a “bonus from the business.”

Investigators allege they found WhatsApp messages between all three suspects that discussed the delivery and storage of large amounts of currency.

And on Tuesday, the DEA executed a search warrant on Maria’s residence where Sanchez said agents found approximately $60,000 in cash and a couple hundred thousand dollars in assets that included valuables and jewelry.