Three men who worked at a Miami-area refinery are accused of importing over $1 billion in illegally mined gold from South America in a money-laundering scheme from 2013 to 2016.
Prosecutors say the ex-employees of NTR Metals Miami, at 8266 NW 14th Street in Doral, along with accomplices from several South American countries, coordinated the purchase of illegally mined gold originating from Peruvian mines controlled by drug traffickers.
Evidence in the complaint includes exchanges among the three men through apps such as Whatsapp. In one of them, one man boasted about his gold-smuggling operations by comparing himself to the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, killed in 1993.
Prosecutors identified the ringleader as 35-year-old Juan Pablo Granda, a former director of operations for NTR Metals Miami. FBI agents detained him at his mother's home in Miami on March 15.
Renato Rodriguez and Samer Barrage were also charged. The three have pleaded not guilty and now await a trial set for January 2018.
Prosecutors say the men purchased the illegal gold from early 2013 to 2016. During Granda's bail hearing in March, Maderal said Granda alone coordinated the laundering of more than $1 billion in illegal gold.
Prosecutors said the three cultivated relationships with gold sellers by entertaining them and bringing to Miami. On a trip to Chile, Rodriguez and Barrage entertained a Chilean gold smuggler with alcohol and prostitutes, the complaint says.
Defense lawyers for Granda and Rodriguez declined to comment about their clients' cases. Barrage's lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.