SANTO DOMINGO.- In the next few hours antinarcotics authorities could announce more arrests and raids of other money exchange agencies used by a Dominican-Colombian drug ring which laundered millions of dollars through "Operation Pitufo" (Smurf).

In the last 48 hours the National Drugs Control Agency (DNCD) has raided the exchange businesses Valher, in Lope de Vega avenue and Los Angeles, in the Paseo de la Churchill, where seven people have been arrested, the network’s ringleaders among them

DNCD officials said in the last two years, using exchange agencies and other businesses, the ring laundered millions of dollars via the "operation," with small cash deposits to elude the report of transactions that surpass certain amount.

The name " pitufo" relates to one or several individuals (pitufos) in charge of the many separate transactions that while individually don’t add up to high figures together constitute an important sum.

The DNCD and the United States DEA exchanged information to identify others implicated in what they consider is one of the most powerful money-laundering organizations.