The Russian mafia planned to invest in Cuba since Madrid using a PSOE politician as a claim

The work consisted of accelerating administrative procedures in Spain to achieve residence permit, often adducing asylum by the Ukraine War. To get this network members moved from different parts of Spain and Europe to the town of Ayamonte, in Huelva, where the organization had the services of an official of an official of National Police destined there at a foreigner. It was this agent who accelerated the necessary procedures and advised them to get the residence in exchange for about a thousand euros for each management. The Internal Affairs Unit stopped him in September and entered prison.

The policeman, according to the sources consulted by ABC, also maintained political contacts In Ayamonte and through these ‘friendships’ they came to offer the Russian organization investments in the land of the coast of Huelva and hotel complexes, as well as the fraudulent purchase of a residence in Portugal, with the alleged consent of some authority of that country.

The investment in real estate assets It is a classic within the modalities of money laundering of organized crime. Nor is it the first time that the Russian mafia manages to weave relations with municipal positions to be able to make those investments without being disturbed. In several police investigations against these criminal networks, names of politicians and municipal officials of greater or lesser level dedicated to ‘grease’ these investments have appeared, sometimes millions of euros of which their origin is not asked.

Another bus Energy to the island. They came to contact members of the Cuban administration, through the embassy in Madrid, for the start -up of the business. The Cuban government would pay in kind, delivering large amounts of minerals, nickel and gold.

For that business one of the intermediaries, according to the sources consulted by ABC, assured that it had the approval of a well -known PSOE member who would facilitate and close the negotiation with the Cubans. The researchers have not managed to determine At the moment if the politician was aware of that negotiation or used his name as a claim. The intermediary wielded the direct relationship that, according to him, had with the lawyer of said politician.

This is one of the lines of investigation that are still being explored in this case, which could still bring enough surprises. Researchers are attracting attention The extraordinary specialization of the members of the dismantled Russian plot and believe that as they can advance in the investigations it is possible that there are new arrests.

The operation has been of enormous complexity, so it was necessary to have a Europol analyst displaced to Spain for the examination of the information stored in the encrypted mobile phones and given the great draft of the investigation and the extensive criminal connections of the dismantled organization, having as clients the criminal organizations of maximum power and danger.

Multinational laundering

The ‘Strongbox’ operation, carried out by the Central Organized Crime Brigade, the Internal Affairs Unit, the UDEF of Madrid and the UDYCO of Marbella, has uncovered an authentic Russian Multinational of Capital Multinational For organized crimewith branches throughout Europe (Netherlands, Estonia, Lithuania or Italy, among others) capable of moving millionaire amounts of cash and placing it in real estate and other types of investments based on the aforementioned sophistication. The millenary Hawala that is based on trust and classic laundering methods resorted to both millenary.

In Spain they were established by offices or headquarters in different cities (Madrid, Málaga, Marbella …) each of them managed by a ‘cashier’, which made deliveries and money receptions in daily cash, sometimes up to 300,000 euros. The agents estimate that more than a month have exceeded eight million euros moving with this system, from organized crime members – Narcotraffics and robberies in homes and ships – residents in our country.

Customers belong to powerful criminal organizations acting in Spain, including Serbian and Albanian posters, Moffia, the Armenian mafia, and Ukrainian organizationsColombian and Chinese, who moved their capitals all over the world through the Russian ‘ATMs’ not to accumulate large amounts of cash in their homes in Spain. The control of prevention agencies and police action was thus avoided. In return, the Russians charged them between 2 and 3 percent of the money washed.

If something characterized these criminals is their very high professionalism, never detected at that level. «They behaved like an authentic multinational Lighting of capital»The agents insist. Each ‘cashier’ had a safe box, a high capacity money accountant and a soundproof closet where to save the accountant to avoid its characteristic noise by counting tickets. Each delivery of money had to be documented with a receipt for the heads of the organization, who are in Russia.