The Civil Guard has arrested 23 people, for the most part Ukrainians who had achieved the status of refugees, for their alleged involvement in a plot dedicated to bleaching of huge amounts of money for other criminal organizations. The detainees – 20 of them in Spain, one in France and two in Slovenia – were worth precisely from the temporary protection status that the EU has granted to thousands of citizens of Ukraine, to provide “effective money and cash messaging services clandestine banking ”to other criminal organizations, some of Russian origin, dedicated to drug trafficking, tax evasion and smuggling, as detailed on Monday in a note.
In the operation, which in its final phase has been extended for months, the Central Operating Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard has intervened 8.2 million euros in cash and has blocked 27 million more in cryptocurrencies and two million more deposited in bank accounts. In addition, 36 vehicles (some high -end), real estate, luxury watches, jewelry and electronic devices have been seized in the 91 home records made (77 in Spain, 13 in Cyprus and one in France). According to researchers’ estimates, the network may have moved 75 million euros between March 2023 and February 2024.
The now dismantled plot was allegedly headed by two Ukrainian brothers and, although most of its members are of this nationality, there are also Armenians, Azerbaijanos and Kazakh. According to Europol, the Ukrainian citizens “abused” of the status of refugee granted to them after the outbreak of the war and that generated the exit that their savings were taken to protect them.
“Taking advantage of the exceptions established to facilitate the transfer of money between jurisdictions, the criminal network moved huge amounts of cash without being questioned in detail or examined during customs controls,” says Europol. To move the money, the network used mules (term used in police jargon to call people who perform physical transport of drugs or money in exchange for a payment), some of whom were relatives of the organization’s leaders. These mules travel regularly between Spain, Cyprus, France and other countries, and justified the possession of the money they carried as part of their heritage.
When this physical transfer system of large amounts of money was discovered by the Civil Guard, “the criminal network adapted its mode of operation“And,” which made money transfers more difficult to detect, “says Europol. In fact, during the raids made in Cyprus, the investigators located and blocked 26 million euros in one of these virtual currencies. In the operation, led by the UCO, they have participated, in addition to Europol experts in financial crimes, members of the National Fraud Research Office (ONIF) of the Tax Agency, as well as agents of Cyprus and Germany.
