“It is one of the biggest money launderings we have had in our country,” said prosecutor Héctor Barros.
A bank executive was also arrested in the operation.
A criminal investigation initiated in 2024 by the South Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office and the Chilean Investigative Police culminated this week with the dismantling of a money laundering network linked to the criminal organization Tren de Aragua, which mobilized nearly 90 million dollars through the use of cryptocurrencies.
The operation, carried out in Santiago de Chile, resulted in the arrest of approximately 20 people, including an account executive from Banco Santander, who used exchanges to divert illicit capital abroad.
The regional prosecutor of the case, Héctor Barros, described the procedure as one of the largest patrimonial coups recorded in judicial history of the southern country, because it directly attacks the economic support of the gang instead of focusing only on the operational commanders. “It is one of the biggest washes we have had in our country,” Barros said.
The funds, according to the data collected in the criminal investigation, came from serious crimes such as transnational extortion, coordinated in part from penitentiary centers located in Colombia by leaders of the criminal group.
The person involved in the banking sector maintained personal checking accounts at at least five financial institutions traditional assets of the country, from where it dispersed the resources to two intermediary companies before converting them into cryptocurrencies for their subsequent departure from Chilean territory.
The judicial authorities explicitly clarified that the illicit activities were not channeled through the corporate infrastructure of the entity where the executive worked, which expressed its full collaboration with the process.
Aragua train, cryptocurrencies and organized crime
This event joins other recent precedents where law agencies achieve the economic suffocation of criminal cells by tracking the public accounting of decentralized networks.
In April 2026, the so-called Hidden Heritage Operation had already neutralized another network in Chile—also linked to the Aragua Train—that mobilized 4 million dollars through digital transactions. While in May, the Spanish National Police dismantled a gang associated with the same group in Madrid after detecting a forced transfer of 1.3 million euros in digital assets, CriptoNoticias reported.
The financial hit to the Aragua Train exposes how transnational organized crime has integrated cryptocurrencies into its business model for the mobilization of capital outside state borders.
The dismantling of this scheme in Chile demonstrates that, while digital assets offer decentralized and fast transfer channels, tracking conversion points to the traditional banking system remains the key link so that the authorities achieve the economic suffocation of these criminal organizations.
However, it must be taken into account that, although the absolute amount of this money laundering is high for the region, in percentage terms the use of cryptocurrencies in criminal actions continues to represent a fraction of just 1% compared to fiat cash.
Historically, transnational criminal organizations show a marked preference for cash due to the immediate liquidity it offers before the authorities activate the risk control alarms.