Brothers Iván, Jaime, Martín and Roberto Siucho Neira are well known to agents of the National Police’s Money Laundering Investigation Directorate (Dirila). At least since 2022. A report from this specialized unit identifies them as members of a criminal organization that is dedicated to the collection of gold of illegal origin, which is then falsely declared as if it had been acquired from certified producers, for later export to the United States and several Asian countries.
Since then, the Siucho Neira brothers have faced three fiscal investigations for their alleged links to money laundering activities, derived from the sale abroad of the precious metal obtained mainly from illegal miners in Piura and Madre de Dios, and probably from others in Ecuador. On February 23, 2022, the Organized Crime Department of the Money Laundering Investigation Directorate sent a report to prosecutor Lizardo Pantoja Domínguez, detailing how the Siucho Neira business works. According to the report, the brothers fabricate temporary mining exploitation permits from the Regional Directorate of Energy and Mines of Piura and certifications from the National Superintendency of Customs and Tax Administration (Sunat) to provide legality to exports of gold of illicit origin.
“The Siucho (Neira) brothers carried out illegal operations through their company Quántico (Servicios) Integrados, using false and fraudulent documentation, the same that would have been used to comply with the requirements for export, which causes economic and tax damage to Sunat and formal companies when carrying out activities in the mining sector, such as the alleged extraction of gold from concessions authorized to the State,” states the Dirila report, a document to which La República had access. The Dirila report also warned that the Siucho Neira brothers increased their assets in an unusual way, with the acquisition of luxurious properties, as well as the purchase of land, heavy mining machinery and high-end vehicles. All financed with the export of gold of illicit origin. According to the police investigation, the Siucho Neira family clan acquired around 15 properties and 16 vehicles valued at 20 million soles, between 2016 and 2022. On May 23 of this last year, prosecutor Lizardo Pantoja opened an investigation into the brothers Iván, Martín, Jaime and Roberto Siucho Neira for the alleged crime of money laundering through the company Quántico Servicios Integrados. Their father, Francisco Siucho Ápac, as well as Belgian citizen Melissa Penoy, wife of Francisco ván Siucho Neira, Andrea Arce Canales and Flora Salazar Luján, have been included with them. This is the first case.
THE FOUNTAIN OF FORTUNE
On April 18, 2016, Francisco Iván Siucho Neira —better known by his middle name— founded Quántico Servicios Integrados. Martín Siucho Neira was appointed manager of the company. According to Sunat records, the aforementioned company reported 17 gold exports in 2021 worth US$16.2 million and 13 in 2022 worth US$14.3 million. In total, US$30.6 million. For a new company in the sector, the amount was very striking for Dirila agents. And they were not wrong.
Five months after the Dirila report to prosecutor Lizardo Pantoja Domínguez, businessman Augusto Miu Lei, maternal cousin of the Siucho Neira brothers, reported them to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. In his detailed accusation, Augusto Miu Lei points out facts that fit perfectly with the Siucho Neira brothers’ illegal activities, which Dirila had detected: the company Quántico Servicios Integrados, owned by the Siucho Neira brothers, exported gold of illicit origin. This is the second case that prosecutor Lizardo Pantoja is also investigating.
According to Augusto Miu Lei’s accusation, he discovered that Quantico Servicios Integrados had reported to Sunat that the gold he exported came from the War War mining concession, which he has owned since 2016 and is located in the district of Suyo, province of Ayabaca (Piura). The incredible thing was that not a single milligram of gold was ever extracted from the site. “There is no mining activity in the War War concession, so it is materially impossible that gold-bearing material was extracted from there,” said Augusto Miu Lei. “All this leads us to infer that the accused (Iván Siucho Neira) has used our mining concession, to which the accused does not have access, to illegally justify the export of gold (…). Therefore, the gold-bearing mineral exported is illegal,” said Augusto Miu Lei, who denounced the Siucho Neira for money laundering.
GOLD EVEN FOR PLEASURE
On September 1 of this year, Jean Carlo Miu Lei, brother of Augusto Miu Lei, in an interview with the Sunday program ‘Contracorriente’, admitted having witnessed the illegal activities of the alleged criminal organization of the Siucho Neira brothers. He confirmed what the Dirila had reported regarding the fact that they bought the gold from illegal miners and that they presented it with forged documents as if it had been sold by miners in the process of formalization. But he added another revelation: they also bought the precious metal from Ecuadorian gangs, to whom they paid with AR-15 rifles. Jean Carlo Miu Lei stated that he decided to speak out about what he knew because the Siucho Neira brothers had threatened him.
“(Francisco) Iván Suicho is the head, the brain of the organization. Martín Suicho Neira is the one who follows him, the right-hand man. Jaime Siucho Neira is the one who does the dirty work, the one who provides both legal and illegal weapons. They came down from Ecuador with 10 or 30 kilos. We are talking about an average of 2 to 3 million dollars,” said Jean Carlo Miu Lei.
The complaint filed by Augusto Miu Lei against the Siucho Neiras, in 2022, is one of three cases that have been accumulated in the First Office of the First Supraprovincial Corporate Prosecutor’s Office Specialized in Money Laundering Crimes, headed by prosecutor Lizardo Pantoja Domínguez. Members of the Siucho Neira family did not respond to telephone calls from this newspaper.
Following the case revealed by Augusto Miu Lei, on October 31, 2023, agents of the Criminal Investigation Division of Los Olivos intervened the brothers Jaime and Martín Siucho Neira for carrying out reckless maneuvers aboard two cars, in the district of Independencia. During the vehicle inspection, the officers found three kilos of gold of dubious origin, camouflaged in a pair of sneakers, as well as two Glock automatic pistols with their respective ammunition.
The Second Office of the Prosecutor’s Office for Money Laundering Crimes in North Lima began an investigation against the Siucho brothers and the company Quántico Servicios Integrados, but the case was transferred to the office of prosecutor Lizardo Pantoja because he was in charge of the same alleged criminal organization. In this way, the Siucho Neiras added three cases for money laundering. By accepting effective collaboration in the case of Los Waykis en la Sombra, Francisco Iván Siucho Neira probably did so to distract attention from the very serious charges that he and his brothers face for money laundering.
