Eight people have been arrested by National Police for money laundering in connection with drugs trafficking. Their primary activity was the marine transportation of hashish from Morocco to the Spanish mainland. The searches and arrests occurred in Malaga and Melilla.
The operation ended with the seizure of 350,000 euros in cash, vehicles, and technological gadgets, as well as the freezing of over 250,000 euros in bank accounts. The organisation’s financial collapse has resulted in its complete disintegration.
The study was carried out at different stages. The first stage involved determining how the organisation’s chief and another member were travelling to the province of Almeria to prepare for a narcotics shipment. At that point, the authorities had detained five people and recovered 1,500 kilos of hashish.
The police operation recovered GPS gadgets, navigation devices, satellite phones, guns, and two vehicles as evidence of drug trafficking. Following the searches in Malaga and Almeria, all of the organisation’s members were detained.
Because of the quantity of narcotic substances discovered in a single shipment, the Malaga provincial police headquarters launched an asset investigation, revealing that there was a branch inside this network committed to money laundering.
Melilla-based branch, led by women
The money laundering section was situated in Melilla and was run by the partners of the organisation’s two major members. They had established a food and beverage retail company, which they exploited for years to funnel significant sums of money from drug trafficking. Investigators discovered that the corporation had transferred over 1.5 million euros in cash through its bank accounts.
The company initially used the money to establish and grow. Once consolidated, it began to operate autonomously, becoming the engine of money laundering, with funds coming in from multiple bank accounts in instalments and spaced out over time.
The company blended these cash flows with its own operations, concealing their unlawful origin. The corporation made purchases from suppliers, disclosed its operations, paid taxes, and even paid salaries to scheme participants, all to provide credibility to the organisation’s ostensibly legal activities.
Thus, scheme members might receive the funds as if they were entirely legitimate, dissociating them from their criminal origin.
Besides the company’s laundering methods, investigators found that some network members were also doing their own money-laundering activities to buy real estate and vehicles using front men or trusted intermediaries, making real estate purchases with hidden or unrecorded payments, and financing those purchases.
Searches
Following the investigation, eight people were arrested, and eight searches were conducted in Malaga and Melilla homes and businesses. A total of 350,000 euros in cash was seized, along with a vehicle, mobile terminals, and a computer.
Additionally, 12 residences and 13 cars received asset blocks totalling 1,650,000 euros. Accounts totalling more than 250,000 euros have been frozen.
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