FLASH
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Europol has supported a cross-border operation led by Spanish authorities and involving law enforcement from Portugal against members of a criminal network, mainly Russian nationals, who were providing money laundering services to other EU-based gangs.
The ring had already laundered more than 1 million euros since the investigation began.
The day of action took place on 21 January 2025 in Spain (Madrid, Málaga, Marbella, Torremolinos, Coín and Ayamonte) and Portugal (Lisbon). Overall, the operation led to:
14 arrests
9 home checks
Seizure of over 1 million euros in cash and cryptocurrencies.
The suspects operated mainly in Spain, using the Hawala method to move money mainly obtained from drug trafficking and to launder the funds collected by relying on their networks of companies. Investigators believe the gang carried out daily cash transactions, sometimes reaching up to 300,000 euros per day.
During the investigation, Europol experts provided analytical support to national authorities. During the day of the operation, a specialist was also deployed to work side by side with investigators on site and to assist them in data extraction and further analysis.
The most dangerous organised crime groups carry out complex money laundering schemes to hide their illicit profits, as in this case. To successfully tackle these major criminals, Europol is placing greater focus on high-value target investigations, financial investigations and asset recovery.
At the same time, Europol aims to increase its operational impact by dismantling organised polycriminal groups. To this end, Europol is enhancing its analytical capabilities and developing a comprehensive operational support model to identify, organise, coordinate and deploy multidisciplinary teams to work with Member States and support priority investigations.
Spanish National Police officers, supported by Europol, carried out these joint operations in partnership with Portugal and in line with the EU Security Union Strategy.
The EU Security Union Strategy focuses on four main points: a security environment for the future, addressing emerging threats, protecting Europeans from terrorism and organised crime, and a strong European security ecosystem.
To achieve these goals, the European Commission's DG HOME, EU agencies and dedicated EU funds, including the Internal Security Funds, support EU Member States in tackling criminal threats through coordinated operations targeting criminal networks and their business models. The actions carried out in this framework have received co-financing from the European Union as part of the support provided to EU Member States in combating criminal networks that pose the most significant threats to the safety and security of EU citizens and the EU as a whole.
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