Venezuelan Fugitive Arrested in Boca Chase

Update: Boca Raton Police advise that the arrest began with a routine traffic stop, during which the officer discovered the warrant.

A Venezuelan man was arrested Wednesday morning in Boca Chase on a Puerto Rican warrant for a multi-million dollar fraud.
The short version of the underlying criminal case is available in English from the Associated Press, but there is much greater detail in Spanish from the Puerto Rico Department of Justice.
Da Silva Castro and a Venezuelan associate allegedly defrauded Betteroads Asphalt Corp. (subsidiary of Empresas Díaz) of $7.8 million in 2011. The DoJ indicates they formed a fake corporation and set up a false sale of 100,000 barrels of liquid asphalt (at $78/barrel) that never existed. The funds were transferred to Swiss bank accounts.
It’s not clear why it took five years but a warrant was issued for their arrest in 2016. The associate was in custody in Venezuela at the time and Da Silva Castro’s location was unknown.
The address listed on the blotter entry appears to have been rented around the time the warrants were issued. We have reached out to the police and to the Realtors associated with the rental to see if we can find out more details.
The arrest was reported in Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Dia.