Chile Busts $88 Million Crypto Laundering Ring Tied to the Sanctioned Tren de Aragua Cartel

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 property 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 posh community of financial institution accounts, irregular corporations, and cryptocurrency remittances.

Juan Carlos Pérez Asencio, a Venezuelan nationwide who served as Banco Santander’s restoration government since 2019, performed an necessary 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 massive transactions whose funds got here from drug trafficking, extortion, prostitution, and kidnappings.

Héctor Barros, the prosecutor accountable for the case, acknowledged that the group had laundered over $88 million, declaring this was “one of many largest cash laundering circumstances we have now seen in our nation, linked to the Tren de Aragua.” “I might say that is the primary time we have now hit them the place it hurts probably the most: their property,” he added.

Barros specified that these funds “left our nation by way of 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 gaggle referred to 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 global prison group with Venezuelan origins, was sanctioned by the U.S. Workplace of Overseas Belongings Management (OFAC) in 2024. The workplace acknowledged that the group “infiltrated native prison 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).”