By Paolo Manzo
Key Takeaways:
- Latin American prison teams corresponding to Brazil’s PCC and Crimson Command, Colombia’s Clan del Golfo and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua are increasing past easy laundering into cryptocurrency mining and specialised “laundering-as-a-service” networks that use fintechs, OTC brokers and exchanges to maneuver billions throughout borders.
- Current operations uncovered Crimson Command mining farms in Rio, fintechs processing $5.1 billion for Brazilian gangs, $46 million laundered by Clan del Golfo, and Chinese language-run platforms dealing with over $50 billion in illicit playing proceeds, whereas some flows have been linked to al-Qaeda facilitators and Hezbollah-related networks.
- Analysts argue that as a result of these ecosystems are actually international and resilient, efficient disruption requires tighter licensing, actual-time monitoring, scrutiny of OTC brokers and shell firms, and quicker worldwide cooperation to freeze digital belongings.
Created to allow quick digital transactions with out conventional intermediaries, cryptocurrencies have turn into an more and more common software for prison organizations to maneuver funds globally by complicated digital monetary architectures, making it ever tougher for authorities to hint illicit cash.
Innovation has additionally reached cryptocurrency mining, the method by which specialised pc techniques validate transactions on sure blockchains — the decentralized digital ledgers that file and confirm all cryptocurrency transactions. In return, the operators of those techniques obtain newly created cryptocurrency. One instance emerged in Could, when Brazil’s Civil Police uncovered a Crimson Command (CV) cryptocurrency mining operation within the Complexo do Lins neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. The facility consisted of 30 excessive-efficiency computer systems powered by an unlawful connection to {the electrical} grid and operated fully remotely.
“The benefit is that cryptocurrencies obtained by mining have a technical origin that may be related to a respectable exercise. This creates extra challenges when making an attempt to hint monetary belongings,” Álvaro Marques, a former Brazilian Federal Police agent and investigative intelligence guide for the Rio de Janeiro State Public Prosecutor’s Workplace, advised Diálogo.
In response to consultants, this development displays a broader shift: Legal organizations are not utilizing cryptocurrencies solely to launder illicit proceeds. They’re additionally investing in applied sciences able to producing earnings that seems respectable whereas strengthening their monetary independence. On the identical time, specialised networks are rising that provide cash laundering as a service by offering shared digital infrastructures based mostly on cryptocurrencies and change platforms. Because of this, cash laundering has turn into a extremely specialised prison market able to serving a number of prison organizations concurrently whereas enhancing their operational capabilities.
Financial ecosystems
Cryptocurrencies haven’t changed traditional money laundering networks — they’ve made them much more environment friendly. In the present day, illicit proceeds transfer by subtle monetary ecosystems that embody digital monetary establishments (fintechs), over-the-counter (OTC) cryptocurrency brokers, and cryptocurrency exchanges, quickly crossing borders earlier than reentering the respectable economic system. Every stage provides one other layer of complexity, making it more and more tough for investigators to hint the motion of funds and determine their true beneficiaries.
“Legal organizations exploit jurisdictions with completely different ranges of regulatory oversight, shifting funds by platforms positioned in nations the place supervisory mechanisms stay underdeveloped,” Marques mentioned.
The capacity to maneuver capital with out counting on money and with a decrease threat of interception has turn into one of many principal operational benefits for prison organizations. “Legal organizations are usually searching for higher effectivity, and the truth that cryptocurrencies permit funds to cross borders inside seconds is extraordinarily engaging,” Caio Motta, senior Options Architect for Latin America at Chainalysis, a blockchain intelligence and analytics firm, advised Diálogo.
Investigations present that this mannequin is already widespread throughout the area. In Brazil, Operation Hidden Move (Operação Fluxo Oculto) revealed in Could that six fintech firms underneath investigation processed roughly $5.1 billion in transactions between 2022 and 2025, working as “parallel banks” utilized by the First Capital Command (PCC) and different prison organizations. In Colombia, Operation Gulupa dismantled a community linked to the Clan del Golfo that allegedly laundered roughly $46 million by cryptocurrency exchanges and shell firms. In Chile, the financial arm of the Tren de Aragua has been accused of laundering greater than $13.5 million utilizing Bitcoin, straw males, and worldwide wire transfers.
The position of overseas actors
The internationalization of cryptocurrencies is reshaping the geography of organized crime in Latin America. Legal organizations not rely solely on native cash laundering networks. As a substitute, they will draw on overseas monetary facilitators and international infrastructures that present cash laundering as a extremely specialised service, enabling illicit funds to be transferred and reinvested throughout a number of continents.
“In Brazil, we recognized that cash laundering operations linked to drug cartels, Chinese language cash laundering networks, and illicit monetary flows related to Russia collectively accounted for greater than 50 p.c of the illicit inflows detected on some Brazilian cryptocurrency change platforms in 2025,” Motta mentioned.
Among the many most important actors are Chinese money laundering networks. “These are extremely structured organizations that present cash laundering companies primarily to drug trafficking organizations, fraud networks, and, more and more, state actors,” Motta defined.
One instance emerged in April, when Brazil’s Federal Police recognized fintech Golden Cat Processamento de Pagamento Ltda., operated by Chinese language nationals, as one of many principal monetary hubs of an alleged cash laundering scheme. In response to investigators, the broader community processed greater than $50.8 billion, consisting primarily of funds derived from unlawful on-line playing that have been later redistributed by shell firms and straw males earlier than being transferred abroad.
This evolution additionally extends to terrorism. In July, Operation Hawala dismantled in Brazil a community accused of laundering greater than $19.5 million for the CV, the PCC, and the Terceiro Comando Puro (TCP). Investigators additionally recognized a transaction between the community’s alleged chief, Lebanese nationwide Reda Zayoun, and Egyptian nationwide Haytham Ahmad Shukri Ahmad Al-Maghrabi, who has been designated by the US for offering help to al-Qaeda. Earlier, in 2025, one other Egyptian nationwide, Mohamed Ahmed Elsayed Ahmed Ibrahim, whom the FBI had beforehand recognized as having acted as “a monetary operations facilitator on behalf of al-Qaeda,” appeared in an investigation right into a cryptocurrency laundering scheme linked to the CV.
Hezbollah has additionally emerged on this panorama. The Akil Rada clan, sanctioned by the US for offering monetary help to the Shiite group, maintains enterprise pursuits that embody the cryptocurrency sector in addition to a community of firms with operations in Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Hong Kong, and China.
For analysts, this convergence represents a big escalation of the risk. By sharing the identical international monetary infrastructures, these networks turn into extra resilient, tougher to dismantle, and more and more depending on shut worldwide cooperation. In response to Marques, “the effectiveness of prison prosecution more and more will depend on the fast change of data and environment friendly worldwide coordination.”
For Motta, nonetheless, the actual goal needs to be to target the financial infrastructure that sustains organized crime. “Which means strengthening licensing and oversight processes, monitoring transactions in actual time, rising scrutiny of OTC brokers and shell firms, enhancing worldwide cooperation, and accelerating the freezing and seizure of digital belongings,” he concluded.
