On Sunday, 17 defendants linked to the Tren de Aragua were formalized in Operación Tokio for criminal association, extortion, money laundering, drug trafficking, and smuggling. Among them are two bank executives, one from Banco Santander and one from BancoEstado.
The Fiscalía Metropolitana Sur and the Policía de Investigaciones dismantled a network that moved nearly 80 million dollars from drug trafficking and extortion in the Bellavista neighborhood. Regional prosecutor Héctor Barros said it is the deepest blow to the group's assets. Among those formalized is José Carlos Pérez Asencio, a Banco Santander executive, who moved more than 400 million pesos through eight accounts to convert them into cryptocurrencies and remove them from the country. Rossana Blanco Blanco, a Venezuelan who worked as an external executive at BancoEstado since 2023, was also formalized. Blanco, partner of Joel David Díaz, leader of the faction known as the Shelby, set up shell companies and participated in smuggling stolen vehicles to Bolivia. Magistrate René Cerda ordered her pretrial detention. BancoEstado said it was notified on Friday and immediately blocked her access.
