The Civil Guard of the Murcia Region has clarified, through Operation ROPU, a series of continuous scams throughout the national territory. The investigation has resulted in the arrest of three people and the investigation of another 14, all of them members of a "criminal network" based in Madrid and who allegedly defrauded in the name of the Civil Guard, the National Police and the Local Police, to more than a thousand individuals and companies from all Spanish provinces. In the province of Las Palmas, the Civil Guard has already registered 40 victims, one of them in the municipality of Arrecife, although it does not rule out that there are more injured, since the investigation is still open.
Operation ROPU began last February, when the Civil Guard learned that several farmers in the municipality of Jumilla were receiving telephone calls from people who, identifying themselves as civil guards, requested financial collaborations through the insertion of advertising in official magazines of the Civil Guard.
As a result of the contacts maintained with these first victims, it was found that some of them had "collaborated with the alleged scammers, believing that they were doing so with the Benemérita and that others, despite having expressly declined their participation, had received charges in their bank accounts without their consent", explains the Benemérita.
The investigations carried out by the Civil Guard revealed that this alleged criminal network had acted in other provinces, with the same 'modus operandi', harming both public and private organizations. Thus, last June, and "once the necessary evidence was obtained", the Civil Guard located the origin of these criminal practices in a Community of Assets based in Madrid and requested the corresponding judicial order for entry and registration.
That registration of the property resulted in the arrest of three people, one of them the "main ringleader" of the organization, who are attributed the alleged authorship of the crimes of continued fraud and documentary falsification, as well as the seizure of abundant documentation related to the plot. Subsequently, the analysis of the documents has made it possible to identify another 14 people, alleged members of the criminal organization, who have been instructed in proceedings as investigated.
They posed as members of the Civil Guard, the National Police and the Local Police
The armed institute explains that the criminal organization now dismantled was allegedly dedicated to collecting advertising on behalf of the Civil Guard, the National Police and the Local Police, posing as members of these Corps, "in order to obtain advertisers for magazines on police, professional association or union themes".
"With this method they ensured the collaboration of the sponsors and the effectiveness with their clients, legal publications unrelated to the deception," they point out. Among the clarified cases are victims who, in addition, never received the magazine with which they collaborated, others who received a different one and others who were billed for the insertion of advertising in several publications even though they had only authorized their collaboration with one.
The Civil Guard has also learned that some of the injured would have received telephone calls in which their interlocutor, pretending to be a member of these police forces, "coerced" him when he refused to collaborate.
The police force also indicates that at least two police unions have been harmed by this criminal activity, by "having their logos or acronyms appear on invoices issued in the name of clients, which the now detainees used without the consent of the owners, to give greater credibility to their operations".
"There is only one official magazine, called Guardia Civil"
"The information obtained in Jumilla uncovered an alleged business network dedicated to defrauding both companies and individuals and even public bodies such as town halls, using for this purpose, among others, the name of the Civil Guard, with the aim of obtaining economic income through deception, taking advantage of the prestige and value of the Civil Guard brand", laments the Benemérita.
In this sense, the body has emphasized remembering that 'Guardia Civil' is a registered trademark and that the "only official magazine, legally published" is the one that also bears the name 'Guardia Civil'. They also emphasize that it is a publication that is supported by subscribers and "in no case by external requests for financial collaboration".
The agents also explain that there are other publications related to the Civil Guard or the National Police that use emblems, logos or photographs of a professional nature and that are published by legal associations or unions that, although they do not represent these institutions, deal with current issues, professional associationism or police themes. "These editions, digital or printed, are paid for, in some cases, with the insertion of advertising, all of which is done within the legal framework, for which, generally, they use the subcontracting of advertising companies," they add.
"The illegality appears when the advertising company tries to obtain sponsors through deception or with the ambiguity of speaking on behalf of the Civil Guard or the National Police, as official bodies," explains the Benemérita.
Three detainees in Madrid and affected throughout Spain, one in Arrecife
The three people arrested in Operation ROPU are men, aged between 22 and 50 years old, residents in Madrid. As for the proceedings opened to 14 people as investigated, all of them are alleged perpetrators of the crimes of fraud and documentary falsification.
It is estimated that more than a thousand, the total number of victims affected by the fraudulent practices of the investigated community of property. Forty of them in the province of Las Palmas, and one of them from Arrecife.
The three detainees, the seized documentation and the proceedings instructed have been delivered to the Investigating Court number 2 of Jumilla, in Murcia.
The Civil Guard keeps the operation open with the identification of more injured parties at the national level, with the added difficulty that some of them, due to the deception to which they have been subjected, decline, at first, the dialogue with the investigators, who have had to request the assistance of personnel from Posts and Police Stations to contact the victims directly.
