Crackdown on Money Laundering with USDT in Colombia, 2.3 Trillion Pesos Tracked

The Colombian Attorney General's Office identified a criminal structure that allegedly laundered 2.3 trillion Colombian pesos (approximately 580 million dollars) using the stablecoin USDT. In an operation, five people were captured, including Hugo Daniel Giraldo Santamaría, the alleged leader, and his wife Carolina María Giraldo. The network used USDT along with the conventional financial system to channel resources from drug trafficking and conceal their illicit origin between 2018 and 2026. The prosecutor's office detected a corporate web that gave the appearance of legality to these funds. Authorities imposed precautionary measures on 36 assets valued at over 10.2 million dollars (about 40 billion pesos), including four properties, 19 vehicles, and nine companies in Medellín and Antioquia. Additionally, three more properties valued at around 2.5 billion pesos (approximately 625,000 dollars) were seized to dismantle the financial capacity of the organization.