Europol was recently announced to be actively helping Spain solve a large scale crypto scam. Recently a crypto-based money laundering services provider was tracked down.
According to Europol, a criminal organization was recently caught that was part of networking other bigger organizations for the purposes of money laundering.
The organization was running a chain of planned money laundering schemes that involved the transfer of the assets from fiat to crypto. This was done to hide the suspicious trail of transfers.
The Organization was using many methods to work under the radar without being noticed by covering up their suspicious trail through smurfing and using different crypto ATMs. Smurfing is an illegal technique used by organizations to avoid looking suspicious while committing illegal activities.
The Spanish Civil Guard has already found eight suspects and has charged some more suspects with involvement in the crypto money laundering ring.
The authorities also searched some houses and found a lot of illegal stuff associated with committing this scam including crypto ATMs and computers and some documents associated with the crime.
The crypto wallets of most suspected people were frozen to which over nine million euros (€9 million) were transferred. The organization was supposedly maintaining a cryptocurrency exchange business.
The underlying technique used was also able to hide well and not be detected by the system. Large sums of money were transferred to some bank accounts that belonged to the members of the ring.
To cover up the suspicious transfer trail some international transfers were made and after which the fiat currency was changed into crypto. Europol provided support to the investigation by providing some crucial information during the investigation.
Europol also expressed in the statement that the rate of criminals using the Crime as a Service or CaaS service is alarmingly on the rise.
