Alex Trelinski
THREE German fugitives have been arrested in Malaga Province for running a money laundering ring that acted as a ‘de facto’ shadow banking system for criminals.
Hundreds of millions of euros are said to have been processed by the criminal group.
Commissions of 5% were charged by the gang who transferred up to €5 million per day to make them €250,000.
The men, including their ringleader, were detained in a joint operation between the Guardia Civil, Europol, and German police on March 30.
Details were only released on Thursday due to ‘operational reasons’.
Police seized large sums of cash; money counting machines; encrypted mobile phone devices; different forged identity documents of various nationalities; and a variety of documents.
The group had been on the run from German authorities since 2020.
The criminal organisation specialised in fund movement operations through criminal banking with all financial transactions hidden from authorities.
It allowed them to channel large amounts of cash not just for money laundering, but to finance criminal activities, mainly drug trafficking, in Spain and other European countries
The gang maintained extreme security measures to avoid any kind of routine in their daily financial dealings.
They used false identities based on forged Bulgarian and German ID documents, as well moving addresses and changing cars on a daily basis.
They also communicated and carried out different operations through encrypted platforms.
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