The Spanish Civil Guard announced on 15 February that it had arrested several people involved in an organization that used scams and cryptocurrencies to smuggle money. According to an investigation by the Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard, the source of the investigation was linked to a member of the agency previously investigated.
MAUNA, as the operation was called, discovered that the criminal organization also offered these services to other, similar groups and acted as a capital hub for money laundering. In the beginning, the operation was carried out by a small number of actors involved in drug trafficking. As the operation progressed the group began to change its approach to get a larger share of these activities.
As a result of the crackdown, eight people were detained during nine search operations in Madrid and Valladolid. Nine real estate properties were confiscated, 30 bank accounts were blocked and more than € 300K was seized. Also, several cold wallets containing cryptocurrencies and products worth more than 1,000,000 euros were recovered. The group also had links to several Phantom companies in various European countries, including Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Germany and Lithuania.
Law enforcement activities were further co-sponsored by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, in an attempt to identify the whereabouts of some of the funds laundered by the group.