Overview
- City cybercrime police working with prosecutors executed 21 searches across the capital and the Greater Buenos Aires area that broke up a ring run by two families, with eight suspects charged and one arrested on an outstanding warrant.
- Officers seized about $172,000 in cash, roughly $80,000 in cryptocurrency, vehicles, computers and phones, and records that tracked the group’s finances.
- The scheme drew people in with pitches to buy stocks or stakes and a fake app that showed invented profits, then cited Central Bank restrictions to stall when victims asked to withdraw funds.
- Investigators traced the money through crypto conversions, car purchases and imported electronics resold online, and they say travel agencies, real‑estate firms and shell companies served as fronts.
- The case began with a 2023 complaint in Puerto Madryn and now lists more than 200 victims nationwide, while a separate federal probe called Operation Jackal recently made 17 arrests and found crypto sent to wallets in Nigeria that investigators are reviewing for possible links to the Black Axe network and illicit financing.