An operation that the Civil Guard had open since 2018 has resulted in the dismantling of an international criminal organization with ramifications in Lanzarote, where a 46-year-old person residing in Costa Teguise has been investigated. In total, 31 people have been arrested or investigated in different parts of Spain within the framework of the 'Barramais' operation, aimed at clarifying a series of scams committed through the so-called 'CEO fraud' (Chieff Executive Officer), which would have caused losses close to two million euros in 40 national and international companies.
The operation has resulted in 15 detainees and 16 investigated, all of them as alleged perpetrators of the crimes of usurpation of civil status, document forgery, fraud, computer damage, money laundering and membership of a criminal organization. In addition, the Civil Guard has recovered 350,000 euros.
The investigation began in 2018, when the Civil Guard of Murcia detected a certain increase in the number of complaints filed by companies in the Campo de Cartagena region for alleged scams committed with cybercrime methods.
Specialists in Judicial Police of the Benemérita determined that there were certain links in the modus operandi used to carry out the reported illegal acts.
The investigators observed that the scams were committed through new technologies with the method known as 'CEO fraud', also called 'Men in the Middle', which consists of sending emails to members of the financial or accounting team of a company, impersonating senior executives or CEOs. In this way, they convince the recipients to transfer money urgently to close a financial transaction or pay an invoice. The money is deposited in a bank account in the hands of the criminal organization.
This common thread uncovered a succession of illegal acts not only committed against Murcian companies, but also against other companies based in Valencia and Madrid, and even in Palestine, Italy, Serbia, Macedonia, Indonesia and Hong Kong.
'Economic mules'
The agents found out that the main leader of the criminal organization was a Nigerian citizen with an extensive criminal record similar, based in Valencia, who apparently orchestrated the plot that began by locating people without resources in marginal neighborhoods of Valencia and Madrid. In exchange for providing their identity to open bank accounts, he offered them a percentage of the money that was deposited in them.
The scam began through a computer application that gave access to the content of the corporate email of senior officials of several companies. After intervening these email accounts, they extracted all possible information about customers, suppliers and pending invoices to know with which companies or people they maintained commercial relations and which of them had pending invoices to, later, create email accounts similar to corporate ones in order to instill error in the recipients.
To give credibility to the scam, and after contacting the companies with which there were debts, they falsified the pending invoices and indicated the bank accounts where they had to deposit the money.
The income or transfers arrived to the bank accounts opened specifically for this purpose, from where the ringleader obtained the defrauded funds and diverted them to third-party accounts abroad, mainly in Portugal and the United Kingdom.
The money passed through up to four bank accounts
To make it difficult to track and prevent the movement from being intercepted before it reached its final destination, during the first 24 hours the money passed through up to four different bank accounts, which greatly hindered the work of the investigators.
The Civil Guard analyzed the images of numerous security cameras of different banking entities that served to identify a large part of the members of this criminal organization while they were carrying out financial operations in the accounts previously established to carry out the scams.
Once the necessary evidence was obtained, the Civil Guard informed the judicial authority of the result of the investigation, as well as the search for the main suspect, who was at large.
In July 2020, when he was trying to flee to Nigeria through the airport of Porto Novo (Benin), the leader of the now dismantled criminal organization, 47 years old and a native of Nigeria, was arrested for the execution of an extradition order issued by Spanish judicial authorities.
Since the beginning of the investigation, the Civil Guard states that it has clarified about thirty fraud crimes in which, allegedly, a total of 31 people have participated, all of whom have been located and arrested or investigated in the municipalities of San Javier (Murcia), Liria, Alfafar, Sueca, Almussafes (Valencia), Seville, Costa Teguise (Las Palmas), Burgos, Algeciras and Chiclana de la Frontera (Cádiz).
The 15 detainees and 16 investigated, men, aged between 28 and 52 years of age and natives of Spain, Belgium, France, Nigeria, Romania, South Africa and Guinea Bissau are attributed the alleged authorship of the crimes of usurpation of civil status, document forgery, fraud, computer damage, money laundering and membership of a criminal organization.
So far, the Benemérita puts the number of companies affected at 40, with losses that would be around two million euros, of which, 352,000 euros have been recovered.
The 'Barramais' operation has concluded with the placing at the disposal of the Courts of First Instance and Instruction of San Javier, Cartagena and Elche (Alicante) of 31 people, alleged members of an international criminal organization dedicated to scams and frauds.
The actions carried out in the Command of Las Palmas were carried out by the Territorial Team of Judicial Police (ETPJ) of Costa Teguise, in which they proceeded to the investigation of a 46-year-old person related to the fraud scams that are detailed in this police operation.
