The operation ends with the arrest of nine people and the seizure of documentation in 20 different properties
MADRID, 22 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The delegation of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in Spain has coordinated a police operation between several countries that has resulted in the dismantling of an international criminal organization accused of an alleged VAT fraud of more than 25 million euros against the financial interests of the European Union . This is the first operation of the European Public Ministry with detainees in Spain.
As reported by the National Police, this joint action between the Civil Guard and the Tax Agency and framed in the ‘Operation Marengo-Rosso’ has been carried out simultaneously in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Poland , Slovakia and Spain. It is, legal sources point out, the first operation with arrests coordinated by the office of the European Public Ministry in Spain.
The head of the Central Investigating Court Number 4, José Luis Calama, has acted as guarantee judge who, in a ruling on Monday to which Europa Press has had access, authorized the entries and searches at the homes of the main defendants and companies allegedly involved.
Specifically, the magistrate of the National Court gave the green light to the agents to carry out the pertinent inquiries and in a coordinated manner in up to 20 different properties located throughout the Spanish geography. These entries have resulted in the arrest of nine people and the investigation of another four.
To this end, the officials of the Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard and the Central Unit for Economic and Fiscal Crime of the National Police were assisted by members of the Central Cybercrime Unit, officials of the Tax Agency and EUROPOL.
EUROPOL itself sent a mobile office and technical means to Spain to support the computer work of dumping and cloning the seized devices. Specifically, the agents have obtained abundant documentation as well as a large number of computer devices related to the events.
The magistrate has described the facts as presumably constituting crimes of criminal organization, against the Public Treasury and money laundering. “They are serious crimes not only because of the penalty that they are associated with, but also because of the social significance that they entail, as well as because of the high amount of tax fraud that would be carried out indicatively, affecting the financial interests of the European Union. “he warns.
This fraud was generated mainly, as explained by the National Police in a press release, through the purchase and sale of mobile phone devices and other electronic devices such as hard drives, airpods, tablets and computers.
“All this on a large scale among a complex chain of fictitious companies distributed throughout a large part of the territory of the European Union, which made use of supposedly false invoices, to avoid paying VAT and at the same time requested the national tax authorities the refunds of the same tax without being entitled to it,” they detail.
This system, they continue, generated enormous benefits for the investigated organization, to which must be added those obtained from the final sale of these devices at very competitive prices through online markets in various countries. The framework “was finally perfected through the laundering of the profits obtained, reinvested in high-value real estate, mainly in countries such as Portugal, Italy and the Czech Republic.”
The magistrate draws in his car the supposed hierarchy within the criminal organization according to one of the seized documents. That gang would be “directed and led” by two of the defendants, while “in a second step” two other people would be located, responsible “for the merchandise entry companies and the shell companies.”
The third step would be occupied by two other defendants, people “well introduced in the sector who would in fact manage the outlet or distribution companies.” The fourth step, says Judge Calama, would be related to the “so-called European companies”, which would have the “double mission of providing merchandise to the incoming merchants and receiving exports from the outgoing ones.”
Within the structure of the organization, the magistrate also distinguishes four different groups: the logistics branch, the Medina del Campo branch, the Valencia/Barcelona branch and the Murcia/Alicante branch.
