Operation of the Tax Agency, National Police, Europol and Interpol

• Those arrested provided their identity data and/or personal accounts on different betting platforms, in exchange for an amount of money, and the leaders of the organization used their identities to bet on different sports competitions.

• The first phase of the investigation, in which 22 people were arrested in different Spanish provinces, confirmed numerous fixings of sporting events in more than 20 countries – such as Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia or Bolivia – in which they obtained prizes of up to two million euros from bets

• The organization had a novel and very sophisticated technological system to defraud betting houses, based on the interception of satellite signals and the capture of "feed" content (direct broadcast of images of the sporting event).

March 1, 2024.- Customs Surveillance Officials of the Tax Agency, in a joint operation with the National Police, Europol and Interpol, have detained 53 "mules" in the service of an organization who fixed sporting events and defrauded betting houses. These arrests are in addition to those carried out during the first phase of the investigation, in which 22 people were already detained in different Spanish provinces, and numerous fixings of sporting events in more than 20 countries - such as Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia or Bolivia – in which they obtained prizes of up to two million euros from bets.

The organization had a novel and very sophisticated technological system to defraud betting houses, based on the interception of satellite signals and the capture of "feed" content (direct broadcast of images of the sporting event). The operation also had the collaboration of the General Directorate of Gambling Regulation (DGOJ), dependent on the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.

This operation constitutes the second phase of an investigation that began in 2020 when the National Police Center for Integrity in Sports and Betting (CENPIDA) of the National Police detected a series of suspicious online sports bets, carried out on sporting events. international table tennis. The first investigations confirmed the existence of a criminal network of Romanian and Bulgarian origin, based in our country, with the capacity to corrupt athletes, mainly from their countries of origin.

At this point, the collaboration of Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency was required for the asset investigation, location and monitoring of assets, as well as the identification of investigated subjects who were acting under "nicknames", or even usurped personalities.

Given the criminal specialization of the network and the direct and permanent contacts it maintained with other international criminal organizations based in different countries, international cooperation mechanisms were activated. The investigation was supported by EUROPOL's Anti-Corruption Group of the European Economic and Financial Crime Center (EFECC), as well as specialists from the INTERPOL Center against Financial Crime and Corruption (IFCACC) and its Match-Fixing Task Force.

They carried out sports fixing and defrauded betting houses

The members of the dismantled organization used different "modus operandi" and, in addition, had created a complex criminal network to launder the money obtained from betting.

On the one hand, they fixed matches by predetermining results in different competitions and sports specialties, mainly held outside the national territory. Once the outcome of the event was agreed upon – or any circumstance that could be the subject of a bet – they carried it out online en masse from Spain, which brought them great economic benefits.

On the other hand, the organization had a novel and very sophisticated technological system, based on the interception of signals via satellite and the capture of 'feed' content (direct broadcast of images of the sporting event). In this way, they accessed the live signal from playing fields around the world, anticipating the signal received by the betting houses, a circumstance that they took advantage of to place massive winning bets.

They managed to control more than 1,500 gaming accounts

The agents confirmed that the organization had hundreds of identities that they used to place bets. In this way, they obtained very high prizes in the name of third parties that, apparently, were collected by different people, but in reality those investigated were pocketed. This, added to the fact that they used both cryptocurrencies and payment gateways as a regular means in their financial operations, made it difficult for agents to trace the bets made.

Likewise, the investigation has proven that they handled a huge amount of data, controlling more than 1,500 gaming accounts.

75 detainees and sports rigging in more than 20 countries

The investigation confirmed fraudulent activities linked to match-fixing in different sports and in more than 20 countries inside and outside the European Union, such as Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia and Bolivia. This showed the enormous potential of the dismantled network, which obtained up to two million euros in prizes from bets placed in these countries.

The operation, carried out in two phases, ended with 75 detainees. In the first, the agents arrested 22 people – decreeing the imprisonment of the two leaders of the network – and carried out four searches in the provinces of Guadalajara, Madrid and Zaragoza. In the second phase, another 53 people who acted as "mules" have been arrested, providing their identity data and/or personal accounts on different betting platforms in exchange for an amount of money.

As a result of the searches carried out, the agents seized numerous computer equipment, 80 telephone terminals, two large satellite dishes next to the signal receivers, a high-end vehicle, 5,000 euros in cash and 13,000 euros in counterfeit bills. In addition, they have also seized a large number of bank cards and documentation in the name of third parties, and more than 200 prepaid SIM cards from different telephone companies. On the other hand, 47 bank accounts, 28 payment gateway accounts and 400,000 euros in cryptocurrencies have been blocked.