At first glance they were normal offices. Were call centers or call centers like any other. Under the name of Agnes Travel SRL and Urtarte’s Paradise Call Center SRL operated in Santiago and Puerto Plata one of the most sophisticated criminal networks in digital scam in the country: Discovery case.
Since 2023, hundreds of older adults in USA They were hunted by phone, emotionally manipulated and stripped of their life savings. The loot, according to the Public Ministrywas more than 100 million dollars.
The Santiago prosecutor’s office, with the support of the US Department of Homeland Security and the Transnational Crimes Division (Dediet), carried out more than 15 simultaneous raids in what he called “Operation Discovery 2.0“.
What they found surpassed classic fraud: servers full of stolen data, extortion scripts, accounts foreigners, luxury vehicles, weapons, watches, jewelry.
The scam script
According to research, the scammers contacted by phone to American citizens —mostly elderly— and convinced them that a grandchild had been arrested, that they had to pay a fine to avoid charges, or that their social security was compromised.
They pretended to be officers, lawyers, police officers. They also used stolen identities, set up fake pages, spoofed phone numbers and demanded deposits through transfers or cards prepaid.
The call centers They worked day and night.
The network and its hierarchies
According to the Public Ministryhe network brain in the Dominican Republic it was Miguel Ángel Camilo Pérezalias Camilo or Milo. They accused him of coordinating operations, moving money, managing employees. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Below him, a operator chain made the gear turn: Freddy William Urtarte (Metra), Juan Armando Vásquez Ramírez (Peligro), Erick Ángel Peña Núñez, Hayler Andrés Olivares Núñez (Tripplehmusic), Kelvin Antonio Carmona Sánchez (Calvin) and Deuris Antonio Franco De La Cruz.
These names were not simple aliases: they were voices that carried out the fraud. They all received sentences of four years in prison.
Then there were the less visible links. People who opened accountsmanaged remittances, cleaned money or simply lent his name. Jonathan Rodríguez Bonilla (Tan Tan), Wilson Rodríguez Suero, Lorena Antigua Pérez, Leslie Agnes Succart González, Glorisel Martínez (Gloria), Yenny Corniel (Jenny), Arlin Rosa Rosario (Tiny)Ramón Polanco Leclerc (Ray or La Línea), Arnaldo Rosario Nolasco and Luis Martínez (White Boy).
All were sentenced to four years in prison, but with suspended sentences. They won’t go to jail unless they violate the conditions.
The companies that provided coverage for all this machinery were also hit. Agnes Travel and the Urtarte call center were judicially dissolved. They ceased to exist as a façade and began to add to the file as piece of evidence.
He Discovery case still developing in USAwith defendants who were extradited. However, somehow a bad taste is left in the mouth in a case in which the money of the most vulnerable was played against.
