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Guerrilla group ELN laundered more than $225 million (COP885 billion) through a network of front companies in eastern Colombia, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office. In a press statement, the prosecution said that ELN associates laundered more than $10 a year obtained from kidnappings, extortion, illegal mining and drug trafficking through front companies and cash money transfers to paper companies since at least 2005. The money laundering network had been operating since at least 2005 in the departments of Arauca, Norte de Santander, Casanare, Nariño, Amazonas, and Cundinamarca, as well as in the city of Bogota. Prosecutor General’s Office The laundering network transferred more than $178 million (COP685 billion) to four companies that issued invoices for fictitious sales of vehicles, medicines, and engineering works, “concealing its illicit origin.” Another five front companies in the telecommunications, construction, agriculture, and air services sectors, laundered an estimated $2.17 million (COP83.5 billion) for the guerrilla group. The business of one of the guerrillas’ alleged money launderers, Yasser Husseir Ardila, at one point received funds from the Arauca Governor’s Office to supply fuel to the public health system in the province on the border with Venezuela, according to public records. The guerrillas’ illicit income was allegedly “injected into the Colombian financial system and the real estate sector” after being laundered by the network. Authorities arrested eight individuals for their alleged involvement in the money laundering schemes. Two of the suspects were arrested in Argentina. During a series of raids that sought to shut down the alleged money laundering operations, police and prosecutors confiscated 59 gold bars valued at more than $8.3 million (COP32 billion) and approximately $146.000 (COP563 million) in cash. Prosecutors additionally seized 34 real estate properties, 22 vehicles and 23 commercial establishments with an estimated total value of $9.5 million (COP37 billion). The dismantling of the money laundering operation would be a significant blow to the ELN’s Domingo Lain Front, which operates in Arauca.
