Colombian police dismantled a drug trafficking money laundering gang involved in 42 million dollars of cryptocurrency

According to Bitcoin.com, the Colombian Attorney General's Office announced on Wednesday that, in coordination with U.S. intelligence agencies, it has arrested 8 individuals suspected of using cryptocurrency to launder money for drug trafficking organizations. Police and military conducted simultaneous operations in four locations: Cúcuta, Maicao, Barranquilla, and Bogotá.

Among those arrested were 7 individuals, including the gang leader Guillermo Carpio Cárdenas (nicknamed "Gallo"). The U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico has charged that the gang used deposit networks, cryptocurrency tokens, and small transaction splitting (smurfing) to conceal the source of drug money and evade monitoring by financial intelligence agencies.

Another suspect, Nassim Orfale Vasquez, was arrested in Barranquilla and has been indicted by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. According to the IRS, he has handled over $42 million in suspicious cryptocurrency transactions since 2018, and authorities are investigating whether there are larger money laundering organizations in Colombia's coastal regions.