Joint operation between the Tax Agency and the National Police

• Five people have been arrested and five searches have been carried out in which 70,000 euros, six properties, 16 vehicles and a boat have been seized.
• The organization used shell companies, front men, daily bank transactions and other strategies to give the appearance of legality to the assets it acquired with money from drug trafficking.

February 9, 2022.- Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency in a joint operation with the National Police, has dismantled a money laundering scheme from drug trafficking and tobacco smuggling, formed by two family groups with criminal records, related by kinship and operating with the 'Clan de los Castañas', which operate in Campo de Gibraltar. Their modus operandi consisted of hiding and transforming funds, presumably of illicit origin, through real estate sales, vehicle and boat purchases, financial transactions and the use of winning lottery tickets. They would insert local businesses into them to give them a legal appearance.

The operation began in 2020 following a police operation that led to the dismantling of a criminal organisation in which 40 people were arrested for their alleged involvement in a crime of money laundering derived from drug trafficking.

Following various steps taken, it was discovered that the suspects were using cash through shell companies and front men. Investigators were also struck by the multitude of bank transactions carried out daily, as well as the creation of fixed-term deposits in order to disguise and give the appearance of legality to the assets acquired with money obtained from criminal activities.

Searches and arrests in La Linea de la Concepcion

Following these investigations, a joint operation was carried out last week by the Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency in Algeciras and the National Police Force, with judicial searches in five homes in La Línea de la Concepción, where five people of Spanish nationality were arrested.

Six properties, 16 vehicles including cars and motorcycles of various brands, a pleasure boat, 70,000 euros in cash, a high-end mobile phone, two GPS positioning devices for navigation on the high seas, two satellite phones, and a simulated machine gun and pistol, as well as various documents, were seized.

The investigations, within the framework of the Special Security Plan for Campo de Gibraltar, are still open in order to study the documentation seized in the searches and to assess the constructions detected on rural plots that were seized, allegedly built with unjustified or illegal money. The detainees have been brought before the Investigating Court No. 4 of La Línea.