The National Police has dismantled a criminal organization to which the laundering of more than nine million euros from online scams committed against thousands of European citizens is attributed.
The investigation was carried out for two years by the Palma Money Laundering Group, and originated after two communications from the German prosecutor's office related to scams in the sale of products such as mobile phones or machinery, in which the victims' payments were diverted to a company located in Mallorca and dedicated to boat rental.
The investigators concluded that it was a company without real activity, without employees, without offices and without boats, whose administrator was a person in a situation of homelessness. The use of falsified documentation was also detected to give an appearance of legality to the operations. From there, a whole network composed of 16 companies and 54 investigated people was identified, based mainly in the province of Barcelona, which would have been used to move and launder money from the scams.
According to what was corroborated by the National Police, the network would have used different types of digital fraud, including the creation of 26 fake online sales websites, with which some 3,500 Germans would have been deceived, in addition to attacks on online banking systems.
The detainees were located in a luxury villa in Sitges
The arrests have taken place mainly in a luxury villa in Sitges, where the alleged leader of the organization resided with his partner and where other members of the network were gathered. The operation involved agents displaced from Palma with the support of the Barcelona Superior Police Headquarters, Police Intervention Unit (UIP) and numerous agents from the UDEF.
In the operation, around a hundred bank accounts with balances exceeding half a million euros were blocked and 2 sports vehicles, 4 high-end vehicles, 2 jet skis, 18 luxury watches, jewelry, half a dozen gold bars, cash and other assets were seized, whose total value, pending appraisal, is around two million euros.
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