HIBAPRESS – Mohammed Zerouih
The Directorate General of Spanish National Security announced the dismantling of a criminal network involved in a large-scale fraud operation in the occupied city of Melilla, leading to the arrest of three individuals on charges of financial fraud and impersonating a banking institution. The security operation, codenamed "Lunar," resulted in the freezing of a significant portion of the stolen funds before the perpetrators could fully transfer or withdraw them.
The threads of the case began to unravel when a Spanish banking institution detected suspicious financial transactions and promptly alerted the National Police in occupied Melilla. The bank's rapid intervention, coupled with the immediate investigations launched by the specialized organized crime and violence unit of the Judicial Police (UDEV), contributed to tracing the path of the laundered money and identifying potential suspects.
Initial investigations revealed the identity of the account holder receiving the funds, who attempted to justify the collection of these substantial amounts by presenting forged documents related to a fictitious luxury goods sale. However, technical scrutiny of these documents uncovered flaws and inconsistencies that directly led investigators to the remaining members of the criminal network involved in planning and execution.
Subsequent investigations showed that the defrauded funds were meticulously fragmented and distributed through multiple operations, including direct cash withdrawals, external transfers to third parties, and the injection of a portion into a cryptocurrency trading platform. Despite the complexity of these operations, the joint security efforts with the banking sector succeeded in recovering a considerable portion of the funds stolen from the fraud victim.
In conclusion to these interventions, the Superior Police Headquarters in Melilla urged all citizens to exercise extreme caution and not to disclose banking credentials or respond to suspicious messages and calls claiming to be from banks, emphasizing the importance of direct verification through official channels to avoid falling victim to cyber fraud networks.
