Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office, working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, has uncovered what officials call one of the country’s largest cryptocurrency money-laundering operations. Investigators say the scheme gave a veneer of legitimacy to roughly 2.3 trillion Colombian pesos—around $575 million—allegedly generated by drug trafficking.
The case was built over eight years by the agency’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering units, which traced a web of nine companies and four storefront businesses allegedly used to funnel illicit funds. Officials say the network combined ordinary bank transfers and international wires with cryptocurrency transactions to obscure the money’s origin. Several of the businesses involved had reportedly transferred funds to organizations already sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for drug trafficking.
According to prosecutors, money entering Colombia through the financial system or digital assets was quickly converted to cash and withdrawn, then funneled into luxury real estate and high-end vehicles—steps investigators say were meant to complete the laundering cycle.
Authorities have seized 36 assets in Medellín and the surrounding Antioquia region, valued at about $10.2 million, including four properties, 19 vehicles, and the nine companies and four businesses tied to the scheme. Five suspects have been arrested and are expected to appear before a judge soon, city officials said.
Read the full original report at El Tiempo for more details.
Source: Fiscalía y DEA destapan en Medellín esquema de lavado por $2,3 billones: ocultarían plata del narcotráfico (eltiempo.com). English version produced with AI assistance.
Image: EthereumClassic, CC0 1.0 (via Openverse).