• The leaders of the organization, based in Seville, hid behind a network of shell companies managed by people without resources who were held responsible for the transactions and non-payment of VAT.

• The profits from tax fraud were laundered by the 'leaders' of the organisation by acquiring a significant amount of real estate assets and a large fleet of vehicles, all in the name of front men and shell companies.

• Within the framework of the operation, four properties were seized and 132 bank accounts of the organization were blocked, in addition to achieving the cessation of the commercial activity of the companies involved in the investigation.

• The tax fraud committed by the plot in the last four years is believed to exceed five million euros

March 28, 2022 .- The Tax Agency and the Civil Guard, within the framework of a joint operation, have dismantled a criminal organization dedicated to tax fraud and money laundering through the introduction into Spain of alcoholic beverages from the Netherlands and Portugal. Those responsible for the plot used an entire network of shell companies and front men to hide their own responsibility in the transactions carried out and in the subsequent non-payment of the corresponding VAT, and they also used this scheme of people and companies interposed for the acquisition of an important real estate assets and a large fleet of vehicles with the benefits obtained from illicit activity.

The investigation began at the end of 2020, when officials from the Inspection area of the Tax Agency in Andalusia contacted agents from the Economic Crime Team of the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard of Seville to inform them of the possible existence of a criminal organization based in the capital of Seville, which would be committing a multi-million-dollar fraud against the Public Treasury.

Operation 'Slice'

Already in 2021, the Civil Guard, together with the Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency in Cádiz, began the operation, called 'Tajada', to investigate this organization, made up of a network of people and companies that were dedicated to fraud in the VAT and money laundering, all of this from the introduction into Spain of alcoholic beverages originating in Portugal and Holland.

Once the first indications of this criminal activity were obtained, and the investigation was already judicialized, the judicial authority requested the assistance of the staff of the Regional Inspection Unit of the Special Delegation of the Tax Agency in Andalusia.

As a result of police investigations, it was possible to demonstrate the creation of a network of companies at the top of which there was a person with a history of tax crimes. These companies were suppliers and clients of each other, and declared intra-community purchases and sales of alcoholic beverages destined for the domestic Spanish market.

These natural and legal persons used a false billing circuit between companies in order to not pay VAT, causing damage to the Public Treasury estimated by the Inspectors of the Tax Agency at more than five million euros.

During the investigation, it was discovered that companies were used to move money from one account to another. Large sums of cash were handled by means of bearer cheques that were cashed by the same person – specifically, 79 cash cheques totalling more than one million euros – who also made around twenty cash deposits with a value of more than 350,000 euros.

Modus operandi

The intensive analysis work carried out allowed the investigators to detect how the corporate structure operated. The organization artificially generated a mutual transmission and receipt of funds between the companies that had to declare and pay VAT on the transactions – companies that were managed by people without resources – and the shell companies, established by the organization to avoid the identification of the ringleaders. .

For this purpose of concealment, an immediate mutual transfer of funds was carried out between the commercial companies and their suppliers, and for a similar or slightly higher amount. Therefore, a practice that lacked any commercial logic.

Following an intensive analysis, negotiations with third countries, hot pursuits and many other investigative techniques, police proceedings were drawn up, requesting the judicial authority to agree on a series of measures to complete the investigation.

Operational phase

In July 2021, the partial exploitation of the Tajada operation was carried out, with the Investigative Court number 11 of Seville agreeing to the execution of nine Entries and Searches in the towns of Seville, Dos Hermanas and Alcalá de Guadaira.

As a result of the investigation and subsequent analysis of the documentation obtained in the searches, nine people have been arrested, including the leader of the criminal organisation, for whom the judicial authority has ordered provisional imprisonment. Three people are being investigated for money laundering and a company with which the plot concealed the profits derived from the criminal activity has been charged.

During the operation, more than 12,000 bottles of alcoholic beverages were seized in a customs warehouse (a warehouse with certain tax and customs benefits) in the town of Badajoz. The plot had acquired the drinks in Portugal and intended to introduce them into the commercial circuit in order to commit tax fraud.

It was also agreed to block more than 132 current accounts and financial products securitized by all the companies that made up the criminal network, confirmed by nine limited companies. The total amount blocked amounts to more than 158,000 euros, to which must be added another 20,000 euros in cash seized during house searches.

The judicial authority has also ordered the non-disposal of several properties, as well as movable property registered in the name of a real estate company established exclusively by the organization to launder the profits obtained from tax fraud.

The dismantling of this criminal network has helped to curb the distortion that occurs in the market, resulting from the sale of alcoholic beverages at a price lower than that offered by legitimate competing companies.