Spanish police announced this Friday (14) that they had dismantled a gang that, according to the agency, is the biggest funder of drug trafficking in Europe. Operating since 2020, it operated as a sort of bank and served criminal organizations from more than 20 countries.
The gang used an informal money transfer system popular in the Middle East. Known as “hawala”, it does not require physical movement of money and is based on records of debit and credit transactions maintained by a network of dealers in different locations.
Amounts are thus passed from agent to agent through handshakes, pieces of paper, or simply verbal agreements. Police claimed that the network still used cryptocurrency accounts to transfer large sums of money.
The gang is made up mostly of Syrians and Colombians and operated from a restaurant in an industrial park outside Madrid. According to Spanish police, it laundered around €300 million (approximately R$1.5 billion) in a year, which would make the group the biggest asset concealer on the continent compared to other organizations investigated by Europol, the agency European Union police.
Security forces officials also seized more than €400,000 in cash and cryptocurrency accounts valued at €1.5 million (almost R$7 million), as well as 11 luxury cars and significant amounts. of marijuana in actions coordinated with Europol in 21 locations in Spain. In total, almost €3 million (about R$15 million) was seized in the course of the investigation.
It was not the only creative method, let’s say, of the traffickers in recent times. In July, police in Spain announced the arrest of a group of eight criminals who were developing underwater drones to transport drugs across the Strait of Gibraltar, between the European continent and North Africa, according to the investigation.
According to the corporation, this was the first time an underwater drone was used to traffic narcotics. Three vessels of the type were seized, two of which are still under construction and a third is close to being completed.
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