Key Takeaways
- Chile arrested 18 people over an $88M crypto laundering community linked on to the Tren de Aragua gang.
- Shaking banking security, Juan Carlos Pérez Asencio used Banco Santander to open a number of accounts since 2019.
- Hector Barros froze 140 accounts and seized $300K, prosecuting 18 suspects to cripple gang belongings.
Chile Shuts Down $88 Million Crypto Cash Laundering Group Linked To Tren de Aragua
A two-year investigation has resulted within the arrest of 18 people who operated a scheme that included crypto belongings to launder the proceeds of illicit actions or the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang in Chile.
The operation, executed on Tuesday by the Chilean police and the Southern Prosecutor’s Workplace, was carried out in three areas of the nation and uncovered a fancy community of financial institution accounts, irregular corporations, and cryptocurrency remittances.
Juan Carlos Pérez Asencio, a Venezuelan nationwide who served as Banco Santander’s restoration govt since 2019, performed an essential function in offering the group’s instruments to successfully perform its operation.
Native experiences indicated that Pérez Asencio opened a number of financial institution accounts for the group, which allowed it to execute giant transactions whose funds got here from drug trafficking, extortion, prostitution, and kidnappings.
Héctor Barros, the prosecutor in control of the case, said that the group had laundered over $88 million, declaring this was “one of many largest cash laundering circumstances we’ve got seen in our nation, linked to the Tren de Aragua.” “I might say that is the primary time we’ve got hit them the place it hurts essentially the most: their belongings,” he added.
Barros specified that these funds “left our nation through cryptocurrency corporations, heading to different international locations.” Through the motion, over 140 financial institution accounts have been frozen and $300K was seized from the group.
The motion follows one other high-profile operation executed in July, when Chilean authorities additionally disrupted a bunch known as “Tren del Mar.” At the moment, 52 people have been arrested for utilizing financial institution accounts and cryptocurrency to launder an estimated $13.5 million and transfer these funds to Venezuela, Colombia, the U.S., Paraguay, Mexico, Spain, and Argentina.
Tren de Aragua, a world felony group with Venezuelan origins, was sanctioned by the U.S. Workplace of Overseas Belongings Management (OFAC) in 2024. The workplace said that the group “infiltrated native felony economies in South America, established transnational monetary operations, laundered funds by way of cryptocurrency, and shaped ties with the U.S.-sanctioned Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC).”
