Joint operation of the Tax Agency and the National Police

• They formed a perfectly organized criminal network, structured in a pyramidal way, in which two interrelated groups were integrated, with a common leader.
• 22 members of the organization have been arrested, who performed different tasks, including the leader
• Following the operation, bank accounts worth more than one and a half million euros have been blocked and 13 properties with a value of more than five million euros have been seized.

July 13, 2023.- Customs Surveillance Officials of the Tax Agency and agents of the National Police have dismantled a criminal organization dedicated to scams using the 'financial beach bar' method. They formed a perfectly organized criminal network, structured in a pyramidal way, in which two interrelated groups were integrated, with a common leader.

22 members of the organization who performed different tasks have been arrested, including the leader. After the operation carried out, bank accounts worth more than one and a half million euros were blocked, as well as the preventive seizure of 13 properties with a value of more than five million euros.

The investigation began in March 2022 after a complaint from a victim who claimed to have suffered a scam after having made an investment worth 55,000 euros. The complainant stated that he had contracted a financial service through the Internet and that, after carrying out different operations with his money, he had lost all the invested capital.

Structure of the criminal organization

As the investigations advanced, the investigators confirmed that this complainant had been the victim of an international criminal organization, which had been operating throughout the national territory since at least 2020. It was made up of two clearly differentiated teams, in continuous contact, coordinated by the leader of the organization.

A first team was made up of those in charge of attracting customers anonymously through 'cold calls' – calls to potential clients who did not know the product – through the so-called 'call centre'. These people deceived potential victims by offering succulent benefits obtained through financial operations over the Internet, taking advantage of their ignorance of the investment systems used. The second team would be made up of those responsible for subsequently contacting clients to close the operations.

In addition, this network had members located abroad, in charge of providing the IT infrastructure, facilitating applications, web pages and bank accounts. Finally, the head of the organization laundered the benefits obtained in the scams. To do this, it used intermediary companies with which it acquired properties whose valuation exceeds five million euros.

How fake brokers operated

Once the victim had transferred the funds to the bank accounts, the alleged brokers simulated making investments in the purchase and sale of products, trying to have the maximum number of operations possible until they bankrupt the victims' investment. In reality, the funds were transferred to bank accounts abroad, where the money was stratified, to later be distributed among the members of the organization.

After the investigation carried out, up to 30 more victims were located, to whom economic damage of one and a half million euros had been caused.

The operation has resulted in the arrest of 22 people who are charged with the crimes of criminal organization, fraud and money laundering. A total of six searches have been carried out, both in homes and in the organisation's offices, in which more than 30 telephone terminals, several computers, different computer storage devices and numerous documentation relating to financial activity have been seized. In addition, in one of the registered homes, a kilo of narcotic substance and various materials for its sale were seized.

At the moment the investigation remains open, since more arrests or the appearance of new victims are not ruled out, since the criminal organization made the victims believe that the loss of the invested capital was the result of bad luck or even a lack of injection of money from clients.