14 arrested in hit against money laundering gang in Portugal and Spain

Europol has supported a cross-border operation led by Spanish authorities and involving law enforcement from Portugal against the members of a criminal network, mainly Russian nationals, who provided money-laundering services to other EU-based gangs. The ring had already laundered more than EUR 1 million since the beginning of the investigation.

The action day took place on 21 January 2025 in Spain (Madrid, Málaga, Marbella, Torremolinos, Coín and Ayamonte) and Portugal (Lisbon). All in all, the operation led to:

• 14 arrests
• 9 house searches
• Seizure of over EUR 1 million in cash and cryptocurrencies.

Suspects mainly operated in Spain, used the Hawala method to move the cash sourced mainly from drugs trafficking, and launder the funds collected relying on their own company networks. Investigators believe the gang were carrying out daily cash transactions, occasionally reaching up to EUR 300 000 per day.

Putting the focus on financial investigations

Throughout the investigation, Europol experts provided analytical support to national authorities. A specialist was also deployed during the action day to work hand-on-hand with investigators on the spot and assist them in the extraction of data and further analysis.

The most dangerous organised crime groups carry out complex money laundering schemes to conceal their illegal profits, as in this case. To tackle these top criminals successfully, Europol is putting more focus on investigating high-value targets, financial investigations and asset recovery.

At the same time, Europol aims at increasing its operational impact by dismantling poly-criminal organised groups. To this end, Europol is enhancing its analytical capabilities and developing a complete operational support model to identify, organise, coordinate and deploy multi-disciplinary teams to work with Member States and support priority investigations.

Authorities involved in the investigation:

• Portugal: Judiciary Police (Polícia Judiciária)
• Spain: National Police (Policía Nacional)

Funding through EU financial mechanisms

Officers from the Spanish National Police, 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 future-proof security environment, tackling evolving threats, protecting Europeans from terrorism and organised crime, and a strong European security ecosystem.

To reach these goals, the European Commission’s DG HOME, EU agencies and dedicated EU funding including the Internal Security Funds, support EU Member States in tackling criminal threats through coordinated operations that target criminal networks and their business models. The actions conducted within this framework have received co-financing from the European Union as part of the support provided to EU Member States in combating criminal networks posing the most significant threats to the safety and security of EU citizens and the EU as a whole.