Joint operation of the Tax Agency, National Police, Mossos d'Esquadra and Europol

• They were related to the illicit trade in military weapons and had participated in commercial negotiations of other goods intended for other criminal purposes in conflict zones.
• Two searches have been carried out in which numerous computer media and abundant documentation of their activity have been intervened.
• The investigation has been coordinated by the Special Prosecutor's Office against Corruption and Organized Crime.

April 27, 2022.- The Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency, together with the National Police, Mossos d'Esquadra, and Europol, have arrested two people in Barcelona and in the town of El Masnou for his alleged participation in the crimes of money laundering and membership in a criminal organization. Those arrested, who operated from Barcelona, belonged to a transnational criminal group.

The investigation has been coordinated by the Special Prosecutor's Office Against Corruption and Organized Crime under the supervision of the Central Investigative Court number 2 of the National Court. For the development of this research, the creation of a multidisciplinary working group has been required that includes experts in the economic field, illicit arms trafficking, technological, commercial and international maritime transport; a fact that highlights the enormous complexity and difficulty of the investigation.

The operation is a continuation of another previous intervention that allowed, on November 11, 2020, the arrest of seven people in the provinces of Barcelona, Valencia and Alicante for their alleged participation in the crimes of money laundering, membership in a criminal organization and smuggling of defense material and dual use.

In that police operation, seven entries and searches were carried out, seizing important economic documentation, computer equipment and cash. In addition, the judicial authority decreed precautionary embargo measures on 18 real estate properties and the banking blockade of more than 50 financial products. In this first phase, the great economic capacity that the organization had in the national territory was determined, identifying money laundering operations that would exceed ten million euros.

Since then, investigators have focused on analyzing the evidence collected in the first phase of the investigation. As a result of this analysis, evidence was found regarding the alleged involvement in those criminal acts of two new subjects, the financial director and the commercial director of the business network, detained in this second phase by order of the Special Prosecutor's Office against Corruption and Crime. Organized.

Both were part of the organized criminal group investigated, they were related to the illicit trade in military weapons that evaded customs controls, with the money laundering carried out in Spain as a result of these criminal activities and, in addition, they had participated in commercial negotiations of other goods, such as fertilizers, which could be used by third parties for other criminal purposes in conflict zones.

International trade in weapons, explosives and defense material

The criminal organization - of a transnational nature - was made up of individuals of different nationalities, some of them settled in Spain. This structure hid, under the cover of a legal commercial activity, an international trade business in weapons, explosives and defense and dual-use material that provided them with important economic benefits that they laundered in Spain using companies and bank accounts abroad as instruments.

The study of the economic capacity that the organization had in the national territory, together with arduous field work by researchers, has made it possible to identify the members of the network who operated from Spain, demonstrating prolonged activity over time, with distribution of functions and tasks between them. The organization used cargo ships domiciled in tax havens to market the sensitive merchandise that has been the subject of investigation.

Due to the international connections of this criminal organization and the operations followed by it, throughout the investigation it has had the support of Europol specialists, specifically members of the specialized group of this agency in matters of weapons and explosives, to provide technical support and highlight possible international links that may exist.