Dismantled Spanish network that washed 3 million in computer scams

A spanish police dismantled an organization that washed more than three million euros through the purchase and export to Africa of Spanish wines and industrial machinery, performing computer scams against people and companies from various countries, including Portugal.

The action was a joint operation by the National Police, the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency and Europol, resulting in nine arrests in Santander, Madrid, Alicante and Tenerife.

The investigation began in 2025, conducted by the Customs Surveillance Unit in Cantabria, after the analysis of an intelligence report from the Executive Service of the Commission for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Infringement (Sepblac).

The document alerted suspicious transactions carried out through bank accounts linked to companies, also indicating that the principal investigated resided in that autonomous community.

During this period, the Customs Surveillance agents of Cantabria carried out the tax and banking screening of the companies involved, under the supervision of a judge from Santander.

Given the transnational dimension of the scheme, a joint team was set up with the National Police's Central Cybercrime Unit and international cooperation channels with Europol were launched.

The investigation revealed a scheme involving two connected criminal activities, computer scams and money laundering, the Directorate General of the Police said.

On the one hand, the organisation obtained funds from digital fraud committed in Europe, using various methods, such as interception of corporate e-mails to divert payments, falsification of commercial identities and so-called “goals of love”.

Among the victims are companies and individuals from Germany, Finland, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Romania, Sweden, Taiwan and Peru, among other countries.

The members of the network deposited the values obtained by fraud in accounts of shell companies or instrumental companies, using people who acted as “financial funds”, i.e. facilitators who gave up bank accounts for money laundering, mainly based in Cantabria and Madrid.

The money was immediately fractionated and diversified through circular transfers, foreign currency remittances and large-volume cash withdrawals.

The organisation carried out money laundering in the context of international trade, using exporting companies that applied illicit resources in the purchase of goods, mainly wines purchased from Spanish wineries, as well as machinery and industrial vehicles, which were subsequently exported to African countries.

In view of the risk of destruction of evidence, a first phase of the operation was triggered in Torrelavega (Cantabria), resulting in the arrest of two people and the execution of searches and seizures, in which abundant documentation, computer equipment and cash money were collected.

One of the detainees in this first phase is appointed as the person responsible for the recruitment of the “financial mulas”.

Later, on 20 and 21, the Customs Surveillance of Cantabria coordinated the final phase of the operation, which resulted in seven more arrests in Madrid, Alicante and Tenerife.

Five searches were conducted in residences and at the headquarters of a company in Madrid, in the Madrilenas localities of Fuenlabrada, Las Rozas and Majadahonda, as well as in Adeje, in Tenerife, where abundant commercial documentation, invoices, accounting records, computer equipment, mobile phones, high-value jewelry and cash money were seized.