Over a hundred individuals have been detained across Europe as part of a group that stole millions of dollars and laundered money for the Mafia.
Arrested Persons Allegedly Link to an Italian Mafia
In a recently published article in Newsweek, in Europe, 106 individuals have been detained for allegedly being part of an Italian mafia-linked operation that scammed people out of millions of euros online, sold narcotics, and laundered money.
According to a statement issued by the European law enforcement agency Europol on Monday, the gang members were mostly Italian nationals, and the bulk of the arrests were made on the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife. Computer specialists, recruiters, organizers, and experts in both money laundering and cryptocurrency were all part of the highly organized criminal network, which mostly targeted fellow Italians.
Europol Releases a Statement
According to Europol, the suspects deceived hundreds of people through phishing assaults and other forms of internet fraud including SIM swapping and corporate email hacking before laundering the money through a vast network of money mules and shell businesses, per Washington Newsday.
The gang members duped victims into transferring huge amounts of money to gang-controlled bank accounts in Spain. According to authorities, the money would subsequently be laundered via cryptocurrency transactions or utilized for other illegal operations such as prostitution, drug trafficking, and weapons.
Members of the gang utilized violence to frighten victims and successfully penetrated numerous banks and legal firms in order to steal money from companies and people illegally, according to a recently published news article in Yahoo News.
Gang Members Use Violence To Steal Money
According to Spanish authorities, gang members abducted a lady and forced her to take money from an ATM and created 50 online bank accounts for the organization on one occasion. The suspects intimidated her after she was detained to keep her from testifying against them.
The Policía Nacional said in a statement, "The extreme violence of this group also manifested itself in other criminal actions. They beat up, robbed, and extorted members of the organization who deviated from their rules, as well as other people or companies in Tenerife," according to a report published in Euro News.
Joint Investigation To Track Down Fraudsters
Spanish police, Italian police, Europol, and Eurojust worked together to track down the scammers. Officers searched 16 homes, froze 118 bank accounts, confiscated 224 credit cards, and discovered a marijuana crop during the operation. Twenty of those detained were imprisoned awaiting the outcome of a legal inquiry, including 18 in Spain and two in Italy.
The group is said to have earned a profit of €10 million, or $11.7 million, in the past year alone. According to Spanish police, the investigation into the gang started last summer when they began investigating a group of individuals on Tenerife who were connected to several Italian mafia clans.
Policía Nacional said in a statement that their goal was to launder money acquired via a series of computer crimes in Spain, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, and the United Kingdom.
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