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 a sum 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 rigging of sporting events in more than 20 countries – such as Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia or Bolivia – in which prizes of up to two million euros were obtained from bets.

• The organization had a novel and highly sophisticated technological system to defraud the 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 arrested 53 "mules" in the service of an organization that rigged sporting events and defrauded bookmakers. These arrests are in addition to those carried out during the first phase of the investigation, in which 22 people were arrested in different Spanish provinces, and numerous cases of rigging of sporting events in more than 20 countries were confirmed – such as Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia or Bolivia – in which prizes of up to two million euros were obtained from bets.

The organisation had a novel and highly sophisticated technological system to defraud bookmakers, 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 Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ), which is dependent on the Ministry of Consumption.

This operation constitutes the second phase of an investigation that began in 2020 when the National Police Centre for Integrity in Sport and Betting (CENPIDA) of the National Police detected a series of suspicious online sports bets, made at international table tennis sporting events. Initial investigations have confirmed the existence of a criminal network of Romanian and Bulgarian origin, based in our country, capable of corrupting athletes, mainly from their countries of origin.

At this point, the collaboration of the Tax Agency's Customs Surveillance was required for the investigation of assets, location and monitoring of assets, as well as the identification of subjects investigated who acted 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 the Anti-Corruption Group of EUROPOL's European Economic and Financial Crime Centre (EFECC), as well as specialists from the INTERPOL International Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre (IFCACC) and its Match-Fixing Task Force.

They carried out sports fixing and defrauded the betting houses

The members of the dismantled organisation used different "modus operandi" and had also 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 in a massive way from Spain, which brought them great economic benefits.

Furthermore, the organisation had a novel and highly sophisticated technological system based on the interception of satellite signals and the capture of 'feed' content from them (direct broadcast of images of the sporting event). In this way, they accessed the live signal from the playing fields around the world, ahead of the signal received by the betting houses, a circumstance that they took advantage of to make 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 were apparently collected by different people, but in reality were pocketed by those under investigation. This, combined with the fact that they used both cryptocurrencies and payment gateways as a regular means of financial operations, made it difficult for agents to trace the bets placed.

The investigation also confirmed that they managed a huge amount of data, controlling more than 1,500 gaming accounts.

75 arrested and sports fixing in more than 20 countries

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

The operation, carried out in two phases, has resulted in 75 arrests. In the first, the agents arrested 22 people – ordering 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, 53 other people were arrested who acted as "mules", providing their identity data and/or personal accounts on different betting platforms in exchange for a sum of money.

As a result of the searches carried out, the agents seized a large amount of computer equipment, 80 telephone terminals, two large satellite dishes together with signal receivers, a high-end vehicle, 5,000 euros in cash and 13,000 euros in counterfeit banknotes. 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. In addition, 47 bank accounts, 28 payment gateway accounts and 400,000 euros in cryptocurrencies have been blocked.