Dismantled a criminal organization that had established a bank parallel to the legal one that obtained daily profits of up to 250,000 euros

The Spanish Civil Guard, in collaboration with the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Heilbronn Police Headquarters, Germany, have carried out the RAZMENNIK – VANILLA SKY operation, with which a criminal organization has been dismantled of an international nature specializing in the financing of criminal activities linked mainly to drug trafficking, all coordinated by Europol.

On the part of the Civil Guard, it has been personnel from the Department of Economic Crime of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) who has directed the operation in Spain, proceeding to the arrest of three people of Russian, Filipino and Kazakh origin, all of them of nationality German.

This criminal group was based in the province of Malaga and was led by the person of Russian origin, who, like the rest of the detainees, had escaped from German justice since 2020, without having abandoned their criminal activity.

Banking parallel to the legal one without control of the administration

This criminal organization was specialized in fund movement operations through criminal banking parallel to the legal one, so that all effective financial transactions were veiled from the Administration, allowing them to channel large amounts of cash intended, not only for money laundering. of capital, but to the financing of criminal activities in Spain and other European countries.

During the course of the investigation, it was possible to determine their criminal specialization and the demand they generated for those responsible for other criminal organizations, who resorted to them in search of safe financing channels for their illicit activities and to facilitate money laundering. benefits obtained from them.

Commissions of 5% for every million euros

The person in charge of the criminal organization agreed commissions that reached 5% for each million euros managed, 50,000 euros, having managed to move more than 5 million euros in one day, which would have meant €250,000 in profits in a single day.

The members of this organization kept extreme security measures, avoiding any type of routine in their daily movements, for which they used false identities based on forged Bulgarian and German identity documents, daily changing addresses and vehicles, as well as communicating and carrying out different operations through encrypted platforms.

During the searches carried out in different locations in the province of Malaga, in which German investigators, Europol personnel and the Civil Guard’s Special Intervention Unit (UEI) were present due to the dangerous nature of the targets, They seized large sums of cash, modern money counting machines, encrypted mobile phone devices, different forged identity documents of various nationalities and various documentation that is currently being analyzed.

It should be noted that the three people arrested were wanted by the German authorities for belonging to a criminal organization dedicated to drug trafficking from Spain to Germany, arms trafficking and money laundering.

The dismantling of this criminal organization shows not only the existence of a criminal financial system parallel to the legal one, but also the damage that these service providers can cause to the economic security of the European Union.