A gang that laundered money through some 200 lottery booths was dismantled this Thursday in Costa Rica, in an operation that ended with two deaths and eight arrests, police reported.

Agents of the Agency (Police) of Judicial Investigation (OIJ) and prosecutors carried out 24 raids to capture the members of the gang, which also laundered money through the sale of high-end cars and other legitimate businesses.

"The gang was dedicated to laundering money through different means," including "close to 200 lottery sales points in the northern part of the country," explained the deputy director of the OIJ, Vladimir Munoz, in a press conference.

“We noticed that effectively [...] there were more and more lottery kiosks and that implied that there was more movement of money in the structure,” he said.

Almost a decade of operations

The police estimate that since at least In 2016, the gang was dedicated to money laundering.

“We cannot establish the source [for now], what we can say is that it was not money from a legitimate source,” he added.

He indicated that in a raided house, agents found “a considerable amount of money in a safe.”

Two members of the gang died and another was injured when they exchanged gunfire with agents who were trying to arrest them, Muñoz said.

Three state officials involved

In addition, “there are three officials from different state entities who facilitate the money laundering work,” who were summoned to the prosecutor's office.

The alleged leader of the gang, who is among those arrested, owns a house in an elegant suburb of San José.

Local media, which called the operation the Tombola Case, reported that the raids were carried out in the cantons of Escazú, Guatuso, Upala, Tres Ríos, Alajuelita, and San Carlos.