Cybercrime Groups Use Digital Platforms to Launder Billions in Illicit Profits
Cybercrime has transformed into a lucrative business, with organized crime groups now using digital platforms to launder illicit profits. The traditional phases of money laundering, placement, layering, and integration, are being executed through automated computer sequences, smart contracts on decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, and opaque networks of virtual wallets.
The alliance between drug cartels and Chinese Money Laundering Organizations (CMLO) has created an underground banking network based on mirror transfers and the massive use of digital assets, particularly Tether (USDT), on the TRON network. This scheme is enhanced by generative artificial intelligence, which creates synthetic identities and deepfakes capable of bypassing identity verification systems.
The impact of cyber laundering is severe, as it strengthens the financial capacity of criminal elites to acquire military weapons, finance territorial networks, and contest the monopoly of force against the State itself. The influx of illicit capitals into the formal economy distorts prices in strategic sectors such as real estate and retail trade, creating unfair competition for legitimate economic actors.