International police operation led by the European Public Prosecutor's Office

• 17 people have been arrested in 39 searches carried out in 8 European countries - 20 of them in Spain - and 95 bank accounts have been blocked and 24 properties and several luxury cars have been seized.

• The fraud investigated focused on the purchase and sale of mobile phones and other electronic devices on a large scale, evading the payment of VAT through false invoices.

• The leader of this plot, who has been arrested in Italy, was also investigated in another procedure instructed by the Italian Delegation of the European Public Prosecutor's Office, in the framework of which more than 40 million euros have been seized.

February 22, 2023.- The Tax Agency together with the National Police and the Civil Guard, within the framework of the 'Marengo-Rosso' operation, directed by the Delegation of the European Prosecutor's Office in Spain , have participated, together with police forces from different countries, in the dismantling of an international criminal organization accused of an alleged VAT fraud of more than 25 million euros against the financial interests of the EU. The operation was carried out simultaneously and in a coordinated manner in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Poland, Slovakia and Spain.

The main crimes investigated are organized crime, crimes against the public treasury and money laundering. As for the crime against the Public Treasury, this would have been committed through an alleged VAT carousel fraud, a complex criminal system that benefits from EU rules on cross-border transactions between its Member States by being exempt from VAT. the Added Value.

They avoided paying VAT and requested a refund

This fraud was generated mainly through the purchase and sale of mobile telephone devices and other electronic devices such as hard drives, wireless headphones, tablets and computers. All this on a large scale among a complex chain of fictitious companies spread across a large part of the territory of the European Union, which made use of supposedly false invoices to avoid paying VAT and at the same time requested national tax authorities for refunds of the VAT. same tax without having the right to it.

This system generated enormous profits for the organisation under investigation, to which should be added those obtained from the final sale of these devices at very competitive prices through online markets in several countries.

This scheme was finally perfected by laundering the profits obtained, reinvesting them in high-value real estate, mainly in countries such as Portugal, Italy and the Czech Republic.

Nine arrested and three investigated in six provinces

In Spain, the focus of the investigation has been on alleged organised crime, treasury fraud and money laundering.

Twenty raids and searches have been carried out at different homes and business headquarters in the provinces of Madrid, Barcelona, Castellón, Valencia, Alicante, Murcia, Málaga, Valladolid and Pontevedra, resulting in nine people being arrested and another four being investigated.

EUROPOL agents have taken part in the searches, sending a mobile office and technical resources to Spain to support the computer work of downloading and cloning the seized devices.

As a result of these actions, a large amount of documentation of great interest to the investigation has been seized, as well as a large number of computer devices related to the facts under investigation.