Joint operation of the Tax Agency and the National Police

• They formed a perfectly organized criminal network, structured in a pyramidal shape, in which two interrelated groups were integrated, with a common leader.
• 22 members of the organization, who were carrying out different tasks, have been arrested, including the ringleader
• 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 from the Tax Agency and agents from the National Police have dismantled a criminal organization dedicated to fraud using the 'financial chiringuito' method. They formed a perfectly organized criminal network, structured in a pyramid, in which two interrelated groups were integrated, with a common leader.

22 members of the organization who were carrying out different tasks have been arrested, including the ringleader. Following the operation, bank accounts worth more than one and a half million euros were blocked, as well as 13 properties with a value of more than five million euros being seized.

The investigation began in March 2022 following a complaint from a victim who claimed to have been scammed after making an investment worth 55,000 euros. The complainant stated that he had contracted a financial service over the Internet and that, after carrying out various operations with his money, he had lost all the capital invested.

Structure of the criminal organization

As the investigation progressed, investigators found that the complainant had been the victim of an international criminal organization that had been operating throughout the country since at least 2020. It was made up of two clearly differentiated teams, in continuous contact, coordinated by the leader of the organization.

The first team was made up of those in charge of attracting customers anonymously by means of 'cold calls' – calls to potential customers who were not familiar with the product – through so-called 'call centers'. These people tricked potential victims by offering them huge profits obtained through financial transactions over the Internet, taking advantage of their lack of knowledge of the investment systems used. The second team would be made up of those responsible for subsequently contacting clients to close the transactions.

In addition, this network had members located abroad, responsible for providing the IT infrastructure, facilitating applications, websites and bank accounts. Finally, the head of the organization laundered the profits obtained from the scams. To do this, he used intermediary companies through which he acquired properties valued at more than five million euros.

How fake brokers operated

Once the victim had transferred the funds to the bank accounts, the supposed brokers pretended to make investments in the purchase and sale of products, trying to keep the maximum number of operations open until the victims' investment was ruined. In reality, the funds were transferred to bank accounts abroad, where the money was stratified and then distributed among the members of the organization.

Following the investigation, up to 30 more victims were located, who had suffered financial losses of one and a half million euros.

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

The investigation is currently ongoing, as further arrests and the appearance of new victims cannot be ruled out, as the criminal organisation made victims believe that the loss of their invested capital was the result of bad luck or even a lack of money injection by clients.