Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\nOfficers with the Coral Gables Police Department said Luis Radhames Cabral was taken into custody near the 4900 block of Northwest 114th Avenue in Doral. <\/p>\n
The arrest stems from an undercover investigation known as \u201cOperation Empty Nest,\u201d which dates back to Aug. 6, 2025.<\/p>\n
According to an arrest report, investigators identified Cabral as an alleged \u201cagent of a money laundering organization responsible for transporting and delivering bulk narcotics proceeds in the form of U.S. currency.\u201d <\/p>\n
The report stated that the cash was intended to \u201cconvert said proceeds to cryptocurrency which would then be transferred to wallets maintained by drug trafficking organizations.\u201d <\/p>\n
On Aug. 6, 2025, investigatiors said members of a South Florida task force conducting surveillance observed a black 2023 Chevrolet Suburban registered to Cabral parked near the 5300 block of Northwest 114th Avenue. <\/p>\n
Agents reported seeing a gray Toyota Camry pull up nearby. <\/p>\n
Police said an unidentified man exited the Camry carrying containers, including a duffel bag, and handed them to Cabral, who placed the bag in his SUV.<\/p>\n
Investigators said they later witnessed Cabral and another man carrying containers into an apartment and then returning to the Suburban with large bags.<\/p>\n
A Doral police officer stopped the Suburban around 2 p.m. because it had a \u201cheavily tinted front windshield and (he) could not see inside the vehicle,\u201d the report stated. <\/p>\n
During the stop, both men consented to a search of the vehicle after one of them stated there was money inside, according to the report.<\/p>\n
A K-9 unit responded and alerted to the presence of narcotics odors in the vehicle, authorities said. <\/p>\n
They said a search revealed two duffel bags and a Louis Vuitton shoulder bag containing vacuum-sealed currency bundled in rubber bands. <\/p>\n
Investigators said they recovered $756,595 in cash, primarily in $20 bills, along with other denominations. A gun was also found inside one of the bags.<\/p>\n
Authorities said \u201cquick-count bundles,\u201d which are rubber-banded stacks typically totaling about $10,000, are commonly used to transport and exchange illicit proceeds because they allow for fast counting and minimal time during transactions.<\/p>\n
They said a records check determined that neither Cabral nor the co-conspirator were licensed as a money services business owners in Florida or federally.<\/p>\n
Police said Cabral was re-interviewed Monday and provided a statement consistent with a previous interview, though the exact details were redacted from the publicly-released report.<\/p>\n
Jail records show he is facing one count each of money laundering involving more than $100,000, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering involving more than $100,000, one count of operating as an unauthorized money transmitter involving more than $100,000, and one count of conspiracy to operate as an unauthorized money transmitter.<\/p>\n
As of Tuesday morning, he was being held on a $500,000 bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. He was also placed on a Nebbia hold, which requires a defendant to prove that the money or collateral used to post bail comes from a legitimate, legal source.<\/p>\n
No other arrests have been confirmed at this time. <\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORAL GABLES, Fla. \u2014 A 36-year-old Hialeah man was arrested Monday as part of a joint state and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[8601,28,4324,225,227,226],"class_list":["post-176433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-capitol","tag-florida","tag-florida-capitol","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}