Another major laundering bust rocks 2nd Dominican city

Santo Domingo.- The money laundering structure labeled by the Justice Ministry as “FM” (Lacks More) began to crumble almost immediately after the change of authorities.

The first blow that revealed the illicit operations occurred on August 24, 2020, when the General Directorate of Customs and security agencies seized US$2.18 million inside some speakers from the United States consigned to the company of the now main defendant.

A second blow occurred a week later, when on August 31, another 2.17 million dollars from the same source and addressed to the same company were found, also in loudspeakers.

The gang, subjected to the so-called FM case, is also linked to two other drug trafficking and money laundering structures, one is the one headed by the extradited “Miky López,” the other was dismantled in Puerto Rico for introducing hundreds of kilos of cocaine with the help of employees of the Luis Muñoz Marín airport and the other is known as “Falcón”. They have all been attacked for drug trafficking and money laundering.

Although it is not recorded in the request for a coercive measure, the investigators understand that the gang was left unprotected when their accomplices left port and airport security with the change of authorities without being able to make new complicities that would allow them to continue committing crimes.

Agents from the United States Customs Control and Security Service (ICE) participated in the investigations, since the structure had branches in New York and Puerto Rico. In both cities the money came from drug trafficking.

The request for detention indicates that Rolando Miguel Reyes Javier, coordinated from the United States the shipment of the speakers that were loaded with hidden money to the country from the company Único Autodetailing NY, an entity of which he is the manager in the United States.

Reyes Javier is credited with having set up the transport company Azcona Tours with the investigated Dyna Madison Noguera Polanco, Ramluis Mejía Azcona and former deputy Gladis Sofía Azcona de La Cruz, to turn money from criminal activities legal.

It also indicates that on September 3, a few days after the seizure of more than 4 million dollars in two shipments of speakers on August 24 and 31, Reyes Javier pretended to assign Gladys Azcona all the shares of the company linked to the shipment.