Russian mafia money-laundering ring broken up in Spain
BBC
Eve Webster - BBC News
February 19, 2025 at 7:30 PM
The hands of two investigators examining a large pile of euro notes on a table. There is also a money counter. The image is watermarked with the logos of the Spanish National Police and Interpol.
The ring transferred over €1tn (£828bn) over two years, said police [Europol/Spanish Police]

Fourteen people have been arrested in Spain and Portugal in a series of raids targeting a €1tn (£828bn) criminal, money-laundering network working with gangs across Europe.

Most of the suspects, detained last month, are Russian nationals, according to EU law enforcement agency Europol.

The ring mainly laundered money originating from illegal drug trafficking and charged 2-3% commission per transfer as part of "a genuine multinational money laundering company", according to Spain's National Police.

Nine properties were raided in cities across Spain, as well as the Portuguese capital Lisbon, and more than €1m in cash and cryptocurrencies were seized.

The gang operated in cities across Spain with each office processing as much as €300,000 a day for Albanian, Serbian, Armenian, Chinese, Ukrainian and Colombian mafias based within the EU and elsewhere.

The investigation began in 2023 when police noticed that several known members of the Russian mafia were systematically transferring money belonging to foreign nationals in and out of Spain on a daily basis.

Europol said the scheme used the "Hawala" method which involves customers in one location approaching a broker who then contacts a colleague in another location who transfers the desired amount to the recipient.

This allowed gangs to transfer money across countries without moving it either physically or digitally between bank accounts.

The gang also looked into expanding its business to Cuba with the aim of installing solar panels to provide energy to the Cuban government in exchange for minerals.

During phone-calls with Cuban officials, gang members claimed to have close links to Spanish political leaders.

Each of the raided properties in Madrid, Málaga, Marbella, Torremolinos, Coín, Ayamonte and Lisbon contained a high-security safe and a money-counting machine stored in a sound-proof cabinet used to obscure the recognisable noise of the money counters.

Gang members avoided detection by regularly changing location and vehicles and using encrypted mobile phones.

The phones were linked in such a way that should a member of the group be arrested, the mobile phones of the entire ring would be simultaneously locked down.

Police say the three ringleaders remain in custody and say other arrests are possible.

14 arrested in hit against money laundering gang in Portugal and Spain

Europol has supported a cross-border operation led by Spanish authorities and involving law enforcement from Portugal against the members of a criminal network, mainly Russian nationals, who provided money-laundering services to other EU-based gangs. The ring had already laundered more than EUR 1 million since the beginning of the investigation.

https://www.europol.europa.eu/media...ey-laundering-gang-in-portugal-and-spain

Those guys are pretty sophisticated they have links to the Kremlin and FSB. But also with Ukraine.

Lol so the amount laundered was $1million not $1 trillion like in the initial post. That would have been just ridiculous.

They moved the billions over two years but they didn't seize it ofcourse it are only calculations by the police based on the fact that just one 'office' could handle as much as 300.000 a day.

$300K a day over 2 years would be about $220 million, of which they took a 2-3% cut, so that sounds reasonable.

The original article mentioned $1000 billion(1 trillion), which is just insane. That's way more than the entire global trafficking market, probably a few times over. and it would mean the launderers made $20-30 billion, which would make them the highest earning crew ever probably.

Another big bust linked to the Russians in December.

Operation Destabilise: NCA disrupts $multi-billion Russian money laundering networks with links to, drugs, ransomware and espionage, resulting in 84 arrests

https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov...re-and-espionage-resulting-in-84-arrests