BOSTON — Four Dominican nationals have pleaded guilty in Boston federal court to running a transnational "call center" operation that preyed on hundreds of elderly Americans by tricking them into believing their grandchildren were in trouble and needed cash — fast.

The scheme, uncovered by the FBI, identified more than 400 victims averaging 84 years old, at least 50 of them in Massachusetts. Total losses: over $5 million.

Oscar Manuel Castanos Garcia, 34, ran the operation from the Dominican Republic, where he employed English-speaking co-conspirators to execute what federal prosecutors call "grandparent scams." Castanos Garcia has now pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy.

The mechanics were as cynical as they were effective. An "Opener" would call an elderly victim, pretending to be a grandchild who had been in a serious accident. Then a "Closer" would follow up, pretending to be the grandchild's attorney and demanding a cash payment for legal fees.

To collect the money, the callers instructed victims to hand cash to "runners" — often by ordering an unsuspecting rideshare driver to the victim's door. The Uber or Lyft driver, who had no idea what was in the package, would then deliver the cash to a runner at a nearby location. In other cases, victims were told to ship the cash by mail.

Then the callers would come back for more. A "mix up," they'd say. Or, in the words of the charging documents, "a pregnant woman's baby was lost in the crash." Whatever the excuse, victims were pressured for a second, third, sometimes fourth payment. In some cases, unwitting rideshare drivers were even used to ferry the elderly victims themselves to the bank to withdraw more cash.

Also pleading guilty were two managers who supervised the callers — Joel Jose Cruz Rodriguez, 34, known as "Paflow," and Edward Jose Puello Garcia, 45 — and one runner, Joel Francisco Mathilda Leon, 27. Each faces up to 20 years in prison on the mail-and-wire-fraud conspiracy count and another 20 years on the money-laundering count.

All four were indicted by a federal grand jury in May 2024, arrested in the Dominican Republic in August 2025 at the request of U.S. authorities, extradited, and have been held pending trial ever since.

A fifth defendant, Luis German Santos Burgos, 33, was sentenced on June 25, 2026 by U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin to 48 months in prison and three years of supervised release for his role. Santos Burgos ran a separate grandparent-scam call center in the Dominican Republic and coordinated with Castanos Garcia to share U.S.-based runners.

A sixth defendant, Gerardo Heriberto Nuñez Nuñez, 41, has agreed to plead guilty to money laundering conspiracy for his role in moving the scam proceeds back to the Dominican Republic. According to the indictment, Nuñez Nuñez provided the operators with bank accounts held in the names of purported businesses, into which runners deposited victims' cash.

Two alleged runners remain at large: Ransel Starlin Tavarez Jimenez, 27, of the Bronx, and Jose Arony Fermin Vasquez, 31, of New Jersey, known as "Chiky."

Elderly Americans have proven a bottomless market for this kind of fraud — trusting, often isolated, and easily rattled by a phone call claiming their grandchild is in jail. The average victim age here was 84.

Anyone who suspects they've been targeted by elder-fraud scams can contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or file a complaint through the IC3 Elder Fraud Complaint Center.