Six people have been detained and one more is being investigated in Asturias as alleged members of a band dedicated to launder money obtained from drug trafficking, more than one million euros in the last three years, according to the Civil Guard, which requested the blocking of 16 bank accounts and the seal of 37 vehicles the engine.
The investigation It was started as a result of the Organized Crime and Anti-Drug Team of the Guardia Civil de Oviedo dismantling more than three years ago an organized network that was dedicated to regularly introducing different consignments of drugs into the Principality, mainly cocaine and hashish.
Known as ‘Operation MATTA’ was then settled with the confiscation of five kilos of cocaine and another eleven of hashish, as well as 15 high-end cars and various weapons, and with the arrest of 17 people in Gijón, Siero, Oviedo, Grado, Avilés and Piedras Blancas, of which twelve entered preventive detention.
The Civil Guard then initiated an investigation on money laundering, buatized as ‘Operation METTA’, which was focused during more than two years to collect information on the increase in equity of the members of the organization since most of them had a high standard of living, but did not work.
The agents analyzed the movements of more than twenty bank accounts, the tax data of those investigated relative to recent years, the work activity carried out during said period and they checked the records for the acquisition of both movable and immovable property, among other points, before identifying one of them who acted as a front man and it appeared in all the administrative and economic procedures in which the rest participated in a covert manner.
In this way, the acquisition of vehicles high-value motor, as well as property for large amounts of money, or the payment of rentals of households family houses were always attributed to the figure of the figurehead, which used different bank accounts and a commercial company in its name to make payments, according to the Civil Guard, which also detected disbursements of large amounts of money on trips and purchases of clothing or accessories.
The investigation carried out by the Civil Guard concluded in the middle of the month of March this year, but as a consequence of the declaration of the state of alarm throughout the national territory, arrests of the alleged perpetrators of the crime of money laundering, could not be carried out until the month of mayo.
The six arrested dthey declined to give a statement at the police headquarters, while a seventh person was protested at the Asturias Penitentiary Center, where he was being held serving his sentence.
As a result of the report prepared by the Civil Guard, it was determined that from 2015 to November 2017, the members of this criminal organization would have experienced an increase in assets of more than 1.100.000 euros, product of the illicit activity of the sale of drugs.
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