Joint operation of the Tax Agency, National Police and Europol

• 80 people have been arrested and 53 simultaneous searches have been carried out – in the provinces of Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga and Santander – seizing more than 500,000 dollars and 30,000 euros.

• Investigators estimate that they managed to defraud more than a thousand victims around the world, mainly elderly people residing in the United States, and that it is one of the largest criminal organizations dedicated to this type of crime.

• The management core of the organization was based in the Madrid towns of Parla and Fuenlabrada and had branches throughout the national territory, in the United Kingdom, Mexico and the United States. The US Postal Inspection Service, the North American Department of Homeland Security , the Portuguese Judicial Police and the British National Crime Agency collaborated in the operation.

June 18, 2022.- Customs Surveillance Officials from the Tax Agency, in a joint operation with agents from the National Police and Europol, have dismantled a criminal organization dedicated to scams at the national level. internationally by the "Nigerian letters" method. 80 people have been arrested and 53 simultaneous searches have been carried out – in the provinces of Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga and Santander – seizing more than 500,000 dollars and 30,000 euros. Investigators estimate that they managed to defraud more than a thousand victims around the world, mainly elderly people residing in the US, and that it is one of the largest criminal organizations dedicated to this type of crime. The management core of the organization was based in the Madrid towns of Parla and Fuenlabrada with branches throughout the national territory, in the United Kingdom, Mexico and the United States. The US Postal Inspection Service, the North American Department of Homeland Security, the Portuguese Judicial Police and the British National Crime Agency collaborated in the operation.

The investigation began at the end of 2019, when agents detected packages from the US with large amounts of money hidden inside magazines.

Shortly after, and as a result of the international collaboration of tax and police authorities from the affected countries, they discovered that they were facing a criminal organization dedicated to defrauding through the modality known as Nigerian letters and whose management core was in the Community of Madrid.

Shipping through Portugal

The "modus operandi" consisted of commissioning a copy shop, located in the town of Fuenlabrada, to mass print the letters simulating lottery or other type of prizes, as well as unclaimed family inheritances. They were printed in two ways, either with the name and surname of the victims, or in a generalized way, and then they would acquire individualized labels with personal data and address to place on the envelopes.

Subsequently, they moved to Portugal with huge suitcases – in private cars or in buses dedicated to public road transport – to send them en masse, since the cost of the service was lower than that offered by Spanish companies. The researchers calculated that the approximate expenditure on all the letters sent could amount to half a million euros.

They worked as a " call center "

The victims, always elderly and retired people, contacted the telephone number that appeared in the letters and gave them a short questionnaire to find out their purchasing power, deceiving them until they believed they had been the lucky ones. They were told that to claim the prize they had to pay an initial amount in fees and bureaucratic taxes, with those affected having to pay between 1,000 and 30,000 euros.

The organization had a system of concealing the benefit consisting of ordering its victims to remit the alleged payment of the fees by transfer to another possible victim. They made her believe that she was being lent so that she could complete her payment. Thus, she extracted the borrowed money and, together with what she could gather, sent it in cash to a third party, also a victim, who in turn sent it to a member of the organization in Spain, this being the final recipient. The money was hidden in magazines or catalogs that were intercepted by the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency, thanks to its controls and alerts on parcel movements at customs.

Once they had the money in their possession, they sent it to their country of origin through people in the network dedicated to traveling, known as 'mules', hiding it in luggage or in wallet cards.

The investigation culminated in the arrest of 80 people – 61 in Spain, 16 in Portugal and 3 in the United Kingdom – and with the carrying out of 53 searches – 24 in Spain, 26 in Portugal and 3 in the United Kingdom. In Spain, the searches were carried out in the Madrid municipalities of Parla and Fuenlabrada, in Santander and in the town of Benalmádena, where 30,000 euros, more than 50,000 dollars, 200 telephone terminals, computers and vehicles were seized. All of them have been brought to the disposal of the judicial authority as presumed responsible for the crimes of fraud, document falsification, money laundering and membership in a criminal organization. The number of identified victims exceeds 400, but it is estimated that there may be more than a thousand victims worldwide.