Arrested 17 « clandestine bankers » that moved about 19 million euros for organized crime | Spain

The National Police on Wednesday has reported the arrest of 17 alleged members of a « clandestine banking » that has been listed by those responsible for the investigation as one of the « most powerful international outline organizations. » Those arrested supposedly part of a framework in which several groups participated and that had their epicenter in Antwerp (Belgium), where the alleged leader resided, a citizen with Jordano-Palestinian nationality without a history that was investigated by a dozen countries, including the US. This individual allegedly moved in just two years 21 million dollars (18.7 million euros) from the illegal traffic of human beings and the drug trafficking.

To do this, I used the laundering method known as Hawala, an ancestral informal money transfer system based on trust and personal relationships to which criminal organizations use more and more frequently as an alternative to wash the benefits of their criminal activities and also to protect their money due Turk.

The baptized as Operation Karasu, directed by the head of the Court of Instruction number 3 of Almería, is the continuation of another developed in March 2023 against an irregular immigration network that moved irregularly to immigrants of Syrian origin from the coast of Algeria to Almería and then take them to northern Europe. Then the investigations pointed out that this group came to transfer between 800 and 1,000 people, each of whom paid between 10,000 and 12,000 euros. The analysis of the intervened accounting documentation allowed discovering the trail of the nearly 10 million euros that managed to pocket for this activity and, thus, now uncover the framework used to bleach them.

To this network washing network allegedly belonged to the 17 detainees now, 15 of which have entered provisional prison as alleged perpetrators of the crimes of belonging to criminal organization and money laundering. The arrests were practiced on January 14 during a large police device in which 250 agents participated and in which simultaneous records were made in Antwerp and in the provinces of Madrid, Valencia, Málaga, Almería and Cádiz. During the intervention, the judge and the prosecutor in charge of the case followed the proceedings, something rare, which speeds up the police action.

Among those investigated are three people listed by The European Union Agency for Police Cooperation (Europol) As HVT (acronym for “high value objectives” referred to criminals sought by at least two EU countries), of which two could finally be arrested. One of them is the alleged leader of the plot, arrested in Belgium and whose delivery to the Spanish authorities is still pending executing. He was the Hawaladarname that receives the person responsible for the box and accounting where illegal transactions are reviewed.

Responsible for the investigation – in which agents of the Unit of Economic and Fiscal Crime (UDEF) and the Central Unit of Illegal Imigration Networks and Documentary Falsers (UCRIF) have participated – have affected on Wednesday the importance of blocking the economic resources of organized crime. « Capital laundering investigation seeks to leave (criminals) without economic troops and thereby also compensate for victims in the damages they could have, » said Commissioner José Rodríguez, head of the Udef Blankeo Brigade.

The investigations have found that the leader of the organization – at which in Belgium, where he resided, no legal economic activity was known – directed a group of mules (people responsible for physically moving money) in Spain. He was attended by the group of Arab origin that trafficked with immigrants dismantled in 2023 to transfer its benefits from different parts of the world to Spain and other countries, such as Belgium, Egypt, Syria or Turkey to continue financing its activities. The third group was formed by citizens of Chinese origin based in Madrid. These were responsible for delivering the money to the Arab network by indication of the leader. For that work, this last group received a commission that ranged between 1% and 3.5% of the amount according to the place and the urgency to deliver.

Of course, it demanded to collect this commission in USDT cryptocurrencies (a virtual currency that quotes in parity with the dollar), which subsequently moved many times through a host of virtual wallets to prevent the trace of the funds from being followed. The final destination of these was usually China, although previously money returned to the legal financial system through banking entities of countries with more lax control laws, such as Qatar and Türkiye, according to the researchers. The network, of which there is a record that worked at least since 2022, came to promote its laundering service in chats frequented by criminal organizations, add these sources.

So far, researchers have accredited 32 laundering operations of this plot by the system Hawala which add up to 5.5 million euros in just three months. Only in one of the addresses used to receive and transfer funds moved 18.7 million euros in just two years, between June 2022 and September 2024, they have stressed as an example of their laundering capacity.

In the operation, 205,000 euros have been intervened in cash, plus 183,000 euros in cryptocurrencies, 18 vehicles valued at more than 207,000 euros, ten buildings valued at an amount exceeding 2.5 million euros, high -end pure for amount exceeding 622,000 euros, bottles of first brand wine with a total price that exceeds 7,000 euros and bags of luxury brands valued at 230,0000 euros. These last articles were allegedly used to bleach money obtained from their illegal activities, according to police officers. The cigars, for example, had Chinese destination, where their price is much higher.