Crypto Mining Becomes a Cover
Cryptocurrency adoption in Latin America has grown fast, and criminal groups have noticed. The same tools that let people send money across borders or invest in digital assets can also help hide illegal income. According to Dialogo Americas, much of the criminal use of crypto in the region is tied to money laundering. Some groups have moved into mining and other crypto investments to blur where their money came from.
Mexican and Brazilian police have dismantled mining complexes allegedly run by criminal entities. Those include Brazil’s Comando Vermelho and Mexico’s Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación. Both groups have been linked to crypto money laundering before. Mining is attractive, a former Brazilian Federal Police agent, Álvaro Marques, told Dialogo Americas, because mined coins have a technical origin that can look like a legitimate activity. That makes tracing financial assets harder.
Fintechs and Laundering Networks
Criminal organizations in the region have also built networks of financial intermediaries to move crypto in ways that appear legal. Operation Hidden Flow, or Fluxo Oculto, took down a network of six fintech companies. Investigators say the network laundered more than $5 billion for Primeiro Comando da Capital, or PCC, between 2022 and 2025. In June, the Trump administration designated the PCC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. Other groups, including Tren de Aragua, have been implicated in similar crimes.
Crypto has also connected these groups to larger international money laundering rings, including Russian and Chinese networks. One example is Golden Cat Processamento de Pagamento Ltda., a fintech managed by Chinese nationals in Brazil. It allegedly operated as a money laundering scheme and facilitated services for online gambling operators. The network processed over $50 billion before it was dismantled. Investigators have even found links between terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and al-Qaeda and local cartels. That raises concerns about how much international coordination is needed to address this integration.
Pressure Grows for Oversight
Caio Motta, Chainalysis’ senior Solutions Architect for Latin America, told Dialogo Americas that financial organizations facilitating these crimes must face strict oversight. He said that means stronger licensing and oversight processes, real-time transaction monitoring, more scrutiny of OTC brokers and shell companies, better international cooperation, and faster freezing and seizure of digital assets.
The picture is not simple. Crypto can be transparent, but criminals adapt. Enforcement is improving in some places, yet gaps remain. For now, police and regulators are trying to catch up with groups that treat digital assets as another part of their business.
