On November 17, the National Police reported a joint operation carried out with the Mossos d’Esquadra with fourteen detainees linked to the Sinaloa cartel for kidnapping and Murder of an Albano-Kosovar who had gone to Catalonia to maintain … A meeting with the bosses of this plot. Weeks later, two other individuals, relatives of the leader of the organization in Spain, were also arrested in Hungary in relation to these facts and delivered only a few days ago to Spain.
Until recently, this was a type of investigation that the agents of the Central Drug and Organized Crime Unit (UDYCO) or his colleagues specialized in kidnappings of the Specialized and Violent Crime Unit (UDEV), both of the General Police Station of Judicial Police. However, the fact that the mafia organization demanded the payment of the rescue in cryptocurren Central Cybercrime Unit.
The work of the agents specialized in this virtual currency was decisive for the resolution of the investigation. Through their TRIQUES IN THE BLOCKHAINEbut also on the physical level, with their corresponding surveillances, listening and follow -up, they managed to follow the trace of the payment of $ 32,000 by the victim’s relatives in a virtual cryptocurrency wallet, which they had made following the instructions of the kidnappers. These were convinced that they could maintain anonymity.
That excess of confidence lost them, because the specialists of the Group of crypts Not only did they identify the people linked to these transactions, and therefore with the kidnapping, but also to profile the role that each of them had in the organization. «We are researchers – inspector Francisco, who is in command of the novel police group – insistant; We identify them by their network activity, but we also corroborate our inquiries with the usual police techniques ».
In this case, the murder of the Albanian-Kosovar could not be avoided-when they joined the case, it had already been executed-but relations with kidnapping specialists have reached an extraordinary intensity in these months. “In the cases in which we intervene we work at the same level as the rest of the colleagues, and that means being present in all the investigation,” explains the head of the police group.
Six agents
Of course, they also do solo operations, focused on crimes against intellectual property, scams and any modality of organized crime in which cryptoactives play a essential role. There are only six police officers, three of them, including the boss, engineers and the rest with very deep knowledge in the matter.
The investigations, on their virtual plane, focus on the ‘Exchange’the platforms of sale and exchange of cryptocurrencies, a kind of virtual exchange houses. In them the ‘Wallett’also virtual currency tickets where each guardian their money in anonymous accounts. Or so criminals believe.
The main success of Group I is that its agents are capable of ‘discouragement’ cryptoactives; That is, they name and surnames those who operate with them. «They think we are not going to be able to identify them, we are already good for us to believe it. We always get to them And we always recover part of the money. It is traceable. The most active are those that usually have a greater responsibility in criminal groups, ”explains the police. After all, the bosses are those who handle cryptoactives, as well as in the real world with money.
As for the profile of the bad, their age, experts say, oscillates Between twenty and fifty years. They are the criminals at the top of the hierarchy, mostly foreigners, who have settled in Spain. They look for the sun, security and also the quality of life.
Disassemble the ‘exchange’
But the agents not only put those names and surnames to those behind the virtual currencies. They have also collaborated in International operations that have managed to disassemble the ‘exchange’ that used powerful criminal organizations, which is a qualitative leap in investigations.
The results do not leave doubts: «We do not stop, we have 30 open investigations, 20 of them prosecuted. We have to prioritize some because we do not reach all, ”says Inspector Francisco. In the last two months they have made 60 arrests and 20 records. As for money, they have recovered assets by value of more than 700,000 in the last year. In any case, the results are sometimes unpredictable. There are times that it is expected to intervene a lot, and then there is very little, and other times it happens on the contrary.
One of the difficulties that these researchers are found is that the ‘modus operandi’ of criminals and the technology with which they work change every little time, so that they face new challenges continuously. International collaboration – “with the United States is excellent, the same as the work done in Europol,” says the inspector – is essential to obtain the necessary intelligence to successfully face those novelties. «And we also learn by investigating the bad, of course, although it is clear that We know more than them».
Very specialized
Nor are the problems that these highly specialized agents have to explain to the judges how they work and why they reach the conclusions that come: “Sometimes it is more difficult to conve complex matter For a neophyte.
The challenge of group I is to be able to maintain its current effectiveness despite the constant Evolution of organized crime. It does not have it easy, but the truth is that at the moment they get it, that with a certain personal cost, because the work is very demanding.
His classmates from other units are more and more in their potential. They are also aware of their preparation, although they are also the level of Sophistication of groups to those who face and the ‘democratization’ that have experienced not only hackeos, but also the use of cryptoactives to try to wash money of illicit origin of organized crime. A fact that also shows the specialization of criminals: computer scams double every three years, and with them, the number of victims.
Among the most common we find those who use the image of a famous person as a bait, with whom the victims are to invest and not only lose money, but also the control of their devices for letting them access a false financial director. Or the method of ‘Son in Añuro’for which the parents receive a message making believe that their descendants are in danger and need money, achieving, in many occasions, the sending of transfers that later becomes crypts.
The ATRIAHAN OPERATIONcarried out by the group of crypts, formerly called the antipirateria group, it was a before and after in the intervention of this type of virtual currencies. Last November the National Court Judge José Luis Calama He sent trials to the five prosecuted for belonging to criminal organization. They are accused of enriching themselves with the illegal sale of audiovisual content of payment platforms both films and series and delay of football matches. The Prosecutor’s Office asks for up to 22 years in prison.
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