Finnish police dismantel money laundering network
The local authorities discovered the network through a big operation against a criminal group that was looking to wash at least 40 million euros in Spain
The National Police carried out a macro-operation against a criminal network of Finnish citizens who sought refuge in Spain to launder 40 million euros through 16 prostitution websites for Nordic countries that had been opened in the USA.
Six people have been arrested; one of them in Torrevieja (Alicante) and two in Marbella (Málaga), in a simultaneous operation developed in Finland, Malta and Romania, where the leader was arrested.
The dismantled organization activated in 2016 the websites where they advertised the victims, with ads mainly aimed at clients in Finland and Sweden, countries where pimping is punishable and prostitution does not exist in a generalized manner; hence Internet offers pages with gateways payment for both the client and the person who advertises.
The income from Finland through the page sexwork.net occupied more than 75% of the volume of business. Five of the six detainees have been imprisoned and all have been sent to the Court 4 of Torrevieja. The leader, arrested in Romania, is a Finnish man in his 60s who was previously arrested in his home country – he was known for being part of “the old Internet pimps” – for aggravated proxenitism in Nordic countries, for what decided to move to Spain to continue with his criminal activity.
The investigation is a derivative of another operation in 2016 against a network of Nigerian origin of trafficking in human beings. As the police investigations progressed, the leaders decided to transfer the money laundered from Spain to Romania, and hide in Malta.
“We decided to continue with them. The lesson is to go where the money goes, so we will be there to locate it. We have managed to make the world smaller”, said Francisco García, head of the money laundering in Alicante, at a press conference.
K. Tovar
Source: La Vanguardia
