Joint operation of the Tax Agency and the National Police

• The Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency and the National Police have developed the second phase of the 'Doblaje' operation, dismantling the infrastructure that a family clan would have created for the laundering of money from international drug trafficking of marijuana and cocaine.
• The first phase of the operation took place last May with the arrest of six alleged members of the organization dedicated to transporting marijuana from Granada to Germany and Holland, using hidden funds in large tonnage trucks and through international shipments in legal parcel companies.
• The amount laundered so far has been estimated at 907,000 euros and financial products and properties valued at 1,425,000 euros have been blocked, the latter divided into real estate assets worth close to 960,000 euros, as well as vehicles and jet skis worth 465,000 euros.
• Furthermore, the investigation has discovered that the return journeys of these trailers were used to introduce cocaine into Spain, thereby obtaining extraordinary economic benefits.

October 20, 2022.- The Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency and the National Police have carried out the second phase of the 'Doblaje' operation, coordinated by the Delegate Prosecutor in Granada of the Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office based in Madrid, in which the laundering of 907,000 euros from international drug trafficking of marijuana and cocaine has been discovered. Various financial products and properties worth 1,425,000 euros have also been blocked, including real estate assets valued at around 960,000 euros and two jet skis worth 465,000 euros.

Shipping marijuana and cocaine in double bottoms of semi-trailers and through parcel companies

In the first phase, carried out last May, officials from the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency and agents from the Organized Crime and Economic and Tax Delinquency Groups -UDEF- of the National Police arrested six alleged members of the organization that would be dedicated to sending marijuana to Germany and Holland, hiding it in false bottoms made in trailers, in which later, on return trips, cocaine would be introduced to bring it to Spain. Another method used by this criminal group to supply the European market with marijuana would be through legal courier companies. All this results in obtaining extraordinary economic benefits.

Agents searched two flats, one in Granada and another in Maracena, where a grow shop was also searched, which was allegedly set up as a meeting and planning place for drug trafficking. They seized around 80 kilos of marijuana buds, more than 2,200 euros in cash, a firearm, various ammunition and vehicles valued at over 240,000 euros, as well as two tractor units and two rigid trailers, as well as 12 kilos of cannabis sativa intercepted in a package when it was being sent through a legal parcel company.

Hidden assets through front men

In this second phase of the investigation, which began in December 2021, the economic network that supported the family clan to launder funds from drug trafficking has been dismantled through the creation of two companies in Spain established through a solid personal infrastructure, discovering that the leader of the organization, arrested in May, would be avoiding being the owner of assets in the event of possible police or judicial actions, as said assets could be subject to seizure or confiscation. Instead, and to conceal his assets, he would have used front men, people he trusted the most, from his closest family circle, to title assets purchased with the profits from criminal activity.

During the period under investigation, between 2017 and 2022, money laundering operations worth 907,000 euros were allegedly carried out, with the alleged perpetrator being arrested and six other members of the organisation being investigated. The evidence found in the economic-asset investigation also shows that the criminal activity would not be limited to drug trafficking, but that the funds obtained illegally would be reinvested in the legal economic circuit/trafficking, buying mainly real estate, trying to hide both the true owner of the same and the origin and provenance of the funds used for its purchase through a business structure and mixing the funds from criminal activity with commercial activities.

This family clan would use a highly specialized structure and a whole series of modus operandi for laundering funds of illicit origin have been detected, such as the acquisition of real estate and vehicles both in national territory and in other countries, as well as the use of front men and companies created ad hoc for the introduction of funds that were mixed with their legal activity to try to make it impossible to differentiate them.

The agents have blocked various financial products, as well as real estate properties (houses and plots of land) valued at a total of 1,425,000 euros, with the value of the real estate assets amounting to around 960,000 euros, as well as vehicles and two jet skis worth 465,000 euros.