The United States Department of Justice announced this Friday the capture of the Venezuelan Aníbal Alexander Canelón Aguirreaccused of leading an alleged financial network linked to the Venezuelan organization Tren de Aragua, for which he was included in the FBI’s list of the 10 most wanted fugitives.
Canelón Aguirre, 50 years old and known under the alias Prometeo, was formally indicted by a federal grand jury in the state of Nebraska (United States) last December.
The Venezuelan faces four charges related to bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.
The detainee appeared for the first time this Friday in a court in Nebraska, where he pleaded not guilty.
Federal Judge Michael D. Nelson ruled that Canelón Aguirre will remain detained pending trial.
According to the accusation, Canelón Aguirre is the developer of ‘Ploutus’, a malicious program with which they carried out attacks on ATMs to obtain cash and use the funds obtained to launder cash and transfer it to the Tren de Aragua.
Venezuelan detained in the United States
The program included, among other elements, files with anti-analysis measures intended to hinder forensic examination; specifically, software protection tools.
Likewise, Ploutus contained files whose function was to remove the program itself from the system in order to hide its presence, create a false impression, mislead or deceive the employees of the financial institution to prevent them from discovering its installation in the ATM.
The US attorney, Todd Blanche, described in a letter the arrest of Canelón Aguirre as a great success and warned that US Justice will continue working to dismantle narcoterrorism financing networks.
Last Wednesday, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the alleged financial network led by Canelón Aguirre, which would have members in Venezuela and Mexico.
