The French Gendarmerie and Europol have carried out in recent days a major operation against money laundering. After an 18-month investigation and several raids since 2019, they arrested 18 suspects and seized € 4 million in assets. The criminal network involved in these illegal operations was allegedly involved in money laundering worth 90 million euros per year, according to Europol.
“The highly structured criminal organization collected money in France and Spain from drug trafficking. Dirty money was transported across the borders from France to Morocco and via Spain concealing it in trucks and transport vehicles “, one explains.
In 2018, further surveillance uncovered a fleet of fifteen large Moroccan trucks (38 tonnes) traveling across France to transport goods and collect dirty money from drug traffickers, add the investigators. “The trucks could stop for several days while waiting to collect the money before transporting it to Morocco via Spain.” Dirty money was also stashed in cars. In September 2019, a raid by the French security forces had also made it possible to get hold of 2 million euros of cash hidden in the trunk of a vehicle traveling to Spain.
