An international organization accused of fraud through cryptocurrencies, to allegedly launder money from activities such as drug trafficking through shell companies in European countries, has been dismantled in Spain in an operation with the support of the Colombian Police, the United States DEA and Europol. .
The Spanish Civil Guard reported this Tuesday on the Mauna operation, which achieved the “total dismantling” of a “criminal organization based in Madrid”, with eight detainees.
The operation had the collaboration of the National Police of Colombia, to arrest in this country a Colombian allegedly linked to the group; from the DEA, the United States drug enforcement agency, to obtain information about the origin of the laundered money; and Europol, the European police cooperation agency, according to a statement from the Civil Guard.
The organization “had figureheads, as well as a complex international banking and cryptocurrency circuit supported by shell companies in countries such as Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Germany or Lithuania, among others, some of which supplanting real companies,” highlights the note .
The operation included the “blocking” of assets supposedly obtained through illicit activities worth the equivalent of more than one million dollars, thirty bank accounts and nine properties, as well as the intervention of some 300,000 euros in cash (about 340,551 Dollars).
The investigation is still open in Spain to identify possible victims of this “massive scam”, which affects, among others, people in a precarious economic situation and others of advanced age, according to the statement.
The investigations began by investigating an alleged member of another organization for money laundering from drug trafficking, which led to the detection of “a network of collaborators”, with experts in cryptocurrencies, merchants and banks at the international level, according to the Civil Guard.
The network became a criminal group to which money from different criminal organizations in Spain was directed, which “carried out intense fraud activity in parallel with money laundering”, with scams worth several hundred thousand euros through cryptocurrencies, adds the note.
Once the victims had become familiar with the investments, from which they obtained a certain return, the organization disappeared with all the cryptocurrency investment, whose capital was exchanged with other gangs, he details. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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