The Guardia Civil, within the framework of operation Kalderobiz, arrested three people and investigated another eight for belonging to a criminal organisation dedicated to money laundering from irregular gambling. They are accused of committing crimes of money laundering, membership in a criminal organisation, crimes against public finances, fraud, and identity theft.
The investigation began in 2019 when a series of suspicious bank transfers made by up to 12 individuals were detected. It was there that it was discovered that the group could be moving up to 2.5 million euro through different European countries using more than 2,000 bank cards.
The modus operandi consisted of contracting these virtual bank cards using, to do so, the identity of up to 1,500 people residing in South America. The network transferred money and from these accounts small amounts were sent to different betting houses in Gibraltar and Malta.
In these tax havens they received higher amounts won, in theory, in these online gambling businesses on their cards. And that was how they managed to “place” the money in other accounts of the organisation.
The authors, for their part, had hardly any activity in betting houses. They were in charge of pouring their prizes into the virtual cards of those investigated, thus managing to mask and evade the controls that gaming entities have to detect money laundering.
This is how the network operated in Bizkaia and Alicante
The criminal organisation was made up of two groups located in Bizkaia and Alicante. The Basque group was advised by professionals specialised in financial and tax matters and created commercial companies to which they diverted fraudulently obtained profits.
On the one hand, they launched a network of companies that made it difficult for investigators to follow the money trail and, on the other hand, these companies managed to reduce the taxes payable to the Public Treasury on their illegal income, giving them a character of legality.
The group based in Alicante was led by an unemployed man and they laundered money obtained illicitly through purchases of real estate and high-end vehicles worth €400,000.
Entries and searches
Six entries and searches have been carried out at five homes and a company headquarters in the provinces of Bizkaia and Alicante. In total, 677 banking products have been blocked, €56,200 in cash, 23 mobile phones, laptops, desktop computers, tablets, video game consoles, five registered watches and numerous bank documentation have been seized, all under the direction of the Court in Getxo.
In the operation, which has been developed by the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Guardia Civil Command of Bizkaia, the Bizkaia Reserve Nucleus, the Cantabria Cynological Service Group and the UOPJ, USECIC and the Cynological Service have participated. of the Alicante Guardia Civil Command.
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