Alleged international drug trafficker indicted; Prolific Uruguayan money launderer pleads guilty

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A Uruguayan national pled guilty to a money laundering conspiracy that involved millions of dollars in drug-trafficking proceeds.

According to court documents, Federico Ezequiel Santoro Vassallo, aka Capitan, 44, was a Paraguay-based transnational money launderer. Santoro was a close associate of Uruguayan national Sebastian Enrique Marset Cabrera, 29, who, as alleged in an indictment unsealed this week, is a transnational drug-trafficker responsible for moving ton quantities of cocaine worth millions of dollars from South America to Europe. Santoro served as a transnational money launderer for drug-trafficking organizations and facilitated the movement of millions of dollars of drug proceeds from various countries in Europe to South America and elsewhere.

Marset allegedly is the leader of a large-scale drug trafficking organization that distributed thousands of kilograms of cocaine, including as many as ten tons at a time, from South America typically to Europe. The Marset drug trafficking organization allegedly traffics cocaine in Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, and elsewhere.

Santoro and his co-conspirators arranged for the collection of narcotics proceeds and utilized couriers and tokens to covertly deliver bulk illicit currency, typically in euros. Santoro’s co-conspirators specialized in placing the illicit currency into the global banking system. He then would direct the movement of the funds internationally, usually via bank wire transfer. Santoro typically directed that the funds be delivered in U.S. dollars and a correspondent bank in the United States would facilitate the transaction.

Santoro used at least seven businesses to facilitate the transmission of money and hid the location and ownership of the assets being laundered by using unrelated companies, all registered as purportedly doing business in different, unrelated industries. Santoro used businesses registered in South America and Asia to receive the laundered drug proceeds and concealed the source of the funds by creating false invoices to justify the wire transfers.

Santoro and, allegedly, Marset threatened violence to protect their drug-trafficking and money laundering activities. Santoro laundered millions of dollars of drug proceeds and in a span of less than five months directed the movement of at least $8 million in drug-trafficking funds through U.S. banks. As payment, Santoro took a percentage of the illicit bulk cash proceeds that he laundered.

In January 2021, Marset allegedly was owed more than €17 million from the proceeds of a single shipment of cocaine. Santoro arranged the collection and laundering of at least €5 million of those funds, the vast majority of which was laundered using the U.S. banking system.

In coordination with the Department of Justice, the Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs announced today a reward of up to $2 million under the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP) for information leading to Marset’s arrest and/or conviction. This is in addition to a $100,000 reward in Bolivia announced in 2023.

Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Louis A. D’Ambrosio, Special Agent in Charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Special Operations Division, made the announcement.

The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and law enforcement partners in Paraguay provided substantial assistance to secure the arrest and extradition of Santoro Vassallo.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Anthony T. Aminoff and Catherine Rosenberg are prosecuting the case.

Anyone with information about Marset’s operation, including his drug trafficking, money laundering, and use of (or threats to use) violence, or about his whereabouts, is urged to contact the DEA by email at MarsetTips@dea.gov.

This investigation is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:23-cr-143.