Jump to content

Luis Santiago Calle Quiros

From TerrorWiki

Luis Santiago Calle Quiros was designated by U.S. Treasury under the Kingpin Act in October 2013. Treasury described him and Maria Paloma Rodriguez Badillo as longtime partners of Isaac Perez Guberek Ravinovicz who collected European narcotics-sale cash in Madrid and moved funds to Guberek-controlled accounts for payment to traffickers in Colombia. Treasury also designated five companies in Spain and Peru as owned or controlled by Calle Quiros. The action identifies a cell of a network that served Ayman Joumaa among other clients; it does not establish a Calle Quiros-to-Hezbollah transfer. OFAC removed Calle Quiros on 14 June 2017.[1][2][3]

Role in the network

Treasury said Calle Quiros and Rodriguez Badillo coordinated with Guberek Ravinovicz, collecting cash at Madrid offices and funneling money to accounts he controlled. The agency designated two companies in Spain and three in Peru because it said Calle Quiros owned or controlled them. It did not state that every transaction of those companies involved drug proceeds or identify the proceeds of a specific Joumaa shipment in the Madrid collection.[1]

Named companies

The five companies were Textimax Spain S.L. and Castizal Madrilena S.L. in Madrid, and Cartronic Group Peru S.A.C., Inmobiliaria Castizal S.A.C. and Ucalsa Peru S.A. in Lima. The Madrid companies shared the published street address Calle Julian Camarillo 47, with a unit specified for Castizal. The entries identify the businesses Treasury associated with Calle Quiros; they do not identify every company address as a proven cash handover site.[4]

Other named relationships

Treasury placed two Calle Quiros-controlled designated companies in Madrid and three in Lima, while locating the described cash collection at Madrid offices. His dual Spanish and Peruvian nationality and the companies’ two-country footprint do not show that each of those firms held a specified Joumaa deposit.[1]

Treasury described the Madrid operation as working under Guberek Ravinovicz’s direction. Its July action had already named Joumaa and Linares Castillo as clients of the Bogota-based network. This is a documented hierarchy and a network-level client relationship. The Spanish-cell release does not identify which share of Madrid cash came from either named client.[1][2]

Removal from the sanctions list

OFAC removed Calle Quiros on 14 June 2017, along with Textimax Spain, Castizal Madrilena, Inmobiliaria Castizal and Ucalsa Peru. Cartronic had been removed on 28 April 2015, and Rodriguez Badillo on 29 September 2016. The April 2015 action amended Calle Quiros’s company links but did not remove him personally. These notices record different dates and outcomes without giving an individual-case explanation for each removal.[3][5][6]

Reported Peruvian finding

An update to El Colombiano’s report states that a July 2018 determination by Peru’s Ministerio Público found insufficient evidence to support suspicion of drug-proceeds laundering involving Calle Quiros. It also reported that no indications had been found of a profit-generating predicate offense. This is the newspaper’s account of a prosecutorial determination. It materially qualifies the earlier allegations, while remaining distinct from the OFAC removal and from a reported criminal acquittal after trial.[7]

The cited October 2013 action was an administrative sanctions designation, not a criminal judgment. The available Treasury releases establish what OFAC alleged about Calle Quiros’s role and companies. The separate statement that Joumaa’s enterprise benefited Hezbollah should not be transferred to Calle Quiros personally without a source identifying such a payment or affiliation.[1][2]

Matthew Levitt’s Beyond Convergence chapter describes the Madrid collections as including Joumaa’s proceeds. Treasury’s October release identified Joumaa as a client of the wider Guberek network without assigning a specific Madrid collection to him. The stronger description belongs to Levitt’s interpretation. Neither account publishes a personal Calle Quiros payment to Hezbollah.[8][1]

Financial mechanism and individual scope

Noam Binstok, Orna Mizrahi and Esteban Klor’s May 2026 INSS analysis describes trade, exchange businesses and hawala offsets as complementary means of financial settlement. It provides context for the distinction between collecting cash in Madrid and making value available in Colombia. The model does not identify an additional personal transfer, establish knowledge of a specific payment’s criminal source, or quantify a receipt by Hezbollah.[9]

See also

References

Legal and sanctions status as of 7 September 2026.

TerrorWiki: Hezbollah-linked narcotics finance and illicit-finance networks
Hezbollah Funding of Hezbollah · Hezbollah · Hezbollah-linked narcotics finance
People Abbas Hussein Harb · Adel El Zabayar · Akram Saied Joumaa · Ali Mohamad Saleh · Ali Mohammed Kharroubi · Amer Mohamed Akil Rada · Ayman Joumaa · Chekri Mahmoud Harb · Dino Bouterse · Haitham Rmeiti · Hamdi Zaher El Dine · Hassan Ayash · Hassan Muhammad Daqqou · Henry Guberek Grimberg · Ibrahim Chibli · Iman Kobeissi · Isaac Perez Guberek Ravinovicz · Johanna Patricia Ceballos Bueno · Joseph Asmar · Kassem Chams · Khaldoun Hamieh · Luis Santiago Calle Quiros · Maria Paloma Rodriguez Badillo · Merhi Ali Abou Merhi · Mohamad Noureddine · Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi · Noah Zaitar · Raji Falhout · Samer Akil Rada · Samer Kamal al-Assad · Siavosh Henareh
Organizations and networks Ayman Joumaa network · Barakat network · Chams Money Laundering Organization · Cheaitelly–El Khansa network · Guberek money-laundering network · Guberek network Spanish cell · Hezbollah Business Affairs Component
Banks and exchange houses Al-Qard al-Hasan · Ellissa Exchange Company · Halawi Exchange · Hassan Ayash Exchange Company · Kassem Rmeiti & Co. for Exchange · Lebanese Canadian Bank
Companies Abou Merhi Group · Abou-Merhi Lines · Caesar's Park Hotel · Ellissa Holding · Trade Point International
Criminal groups Cártel de los Soles in the El Zabayar case · FARC in the El Zabayar case · La Oficina de Envigado · Los Zetas in the Ayman Joumaa case · Sinaloa Cartel in the 2019 Chams designation
Investigations and operations Hezbollah Financing and Narcoterrorism Team · Operation Cedar · Operation Titan · Project Cassandra
Countries and regions Argentina and Triple Frontier financial investigations · Benin in the Joumaa exchange-house records · Colón Free Zone money laundering · Hezbollah finance in Brazil · Hezbollah finance in Paraguay · Hezbollah finance in the Triple Frontier · Hezbollah-linked narcotics finance in Colombia · Hezbollah-linked narcotics finance in Latin America · Latin America, West Africa and Lebanon in the Joumaa and LCB cases · South America, Europe and Lebanon in the 2016 DEA investigation · Transnational narcotics finance in Lebanon · Venezuela in the El Zabayar case · West Africa in the Lebanese Canadian Bank case
Money-laundering methods Black Market Peso Exchange · Bulk-cash movement in the Joumaa and LCB cases · Cocaine-proceeds laundering · Exchange houses in narcotics finance · Hawala disbursement in the 2016 European drug-money investigation · Professional money-laundering services · Shell-company accounts in the Guberek network · Trade-based money laundering · U.S. used-car exports to West Africa
Sanctions and law 2013 Section 311 action on Rmeiti and Halawi exchanges · Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act · Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act · Narcoterrorism · Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act
Captagon trade Captagon trafficking and Hezbollah · Syrian Fourth Division and Captagon