Its owner, a Syrian businessman, went from residing in the Barrio del Pilar in Madrid to looking for a luxury apartment in Dubai The Police consider that the network could move 300 million a year in 22 countries After a life of luxury, in Spain part of the funds were channeled to a company of VTC’s another firm of trucksFrom the outside, the Alma de Damasco looked like a restaurant inspired by One Thousand and One Nights. It promised the best Syrian food, typical sweets from Arab countries and when the time came, traditional Persian dances were danced. However, from the first moment, the traffic of clients that the premises had every day caught the attention of the agents. While the reviews on the various restaurant portals were not very promising, the premises located in the Cobo Calleja industrial estate (Fuenlabrada, Madrid) had a fixed clientele, who, in the opinion of the agents, had little or no interest in food and spent frequently around the premises to deliver money. Its owner, a Syrian businessman named Mohamed H. and born in 1985, had already been arrested in December 2019 and accused of alleged money laundering and tax crime. Little did the agents of the Drug and Organized Crime Unit (UDYCO) know that in 2020 they began to monitor the movements in the premises that were going to discover the main branch in Spain of what, according to Europol, is the largest bank “of drug trafficking in Europe ”. From the beginning, the case fell to the group specialized in mafias of Chinese origin. Not surprisingly, the premises are located in the industrial estate with the highest concentration of oriental wholesalers in all of Spain. Seeing so many Chinese citizens repeat day after day at the premises, the agents were clear. Either the chicken couscous was really captivating or something more happened in that place than a moderate consumption of Arab cuisine. So it was. So much so that despite the fact that the restaurant closed last September (the premises where they were rented passed into the hands of a bank) customers continued to go to the same area in search of furtive financiers. This is how the so-called Operation Caldo took its first steps, which began by investigating the movements of a Syrian family and ended up involving half of the police in Europe, revealing the movements of three large mafia groups of different nationalities, shipments of up to four tons of cocaine in two containers, black money transfers worth several million euros and, above all, a parallel financing network that served the different mafia groups to move black money between countries without the need to open any account. In a very basic way, the financial entity functioned as a compensation system. It is the so-called hawalla: a client left the money at the Madrid branch, and another person could collect the funds, subtracting the service fee, at any other “branch” around the globe without further explanation. Later, the terminals of this network communicated through a group of telephone messaging, where the transactions were squared. This is the investigation in which the investigators are now striving, to delve into the ramifications that this narco-bank had from Finland to Turkey and to bring out all the clients. In addition, those under investigation offered other services to the mafias, such as loans, which, according to the National Police, were used to finance international shipments of cocaine. In its last stage and according to sources familiar with the case, those investigated also invested part of their funds directly in drug shipments. Thus, the skein began to grow, the main ringleader went from an apartment in the Pilar neighborhood of Madrid to a chalet in the Mirasierra area, and in the wiretapping the agents detected his desire to buy a home in Dubai. According to sources in the case, the agency in charge of the operation in the Arab country had a compound name. His first word gave an idea of what was happening: Luxury (luxury). Police work spread within and across borders. On Spanish soil, the agents began to control three different family groups, the main ringleader, his brother and a nephew-in-law, two other businessmen in Móstoles and another nucleus based in the north of Madrid. Thus, they detected that part of the funds in Spain were being used to finance a VTC company and a trucking company. Hideouts in vehicles Meanwhile, the investigations began to provide transaction data like an incessant trickle. Every time the agents were aware of a pass, they set up a “routine control” that managed to seize the funds without raising suspicions, pretending that the police operation was actually the result of chance. Or better, the bad luck of criminals. Thus, and for two years, the UDYCO agents managed to remove 2.4 million euros from circulation without the alleged criminals realizing that they were under the spotlight. Cochesniusdiario.es In the same way and with the help of the Tax Agency, two containers loaded with cocaine were blocked. The first was in 2020 and the second in 2021. The increase in the investigations then coincided with the movement of funds from the investigated families. Despite being discreet businessmen, large expenses such as luxury cars arrived, also reflected in police reports. Then a new business started, or rather a need, that of “warming up” the cars, or what is the same, providing them with hiding places in the underside of the vehicle so that the money travels hidden in a secret place. It was a game of cat and mouse, but with the agents one step ahead. 21 searches and 32 arrests Finally, last September, in a device in which 120 agents participated, 21 searches were launched and 32 arrests were made in Madrid, Toledo, Málaga and Álava. There the agents found 485,000 euros in cash, a semi-automatic pistol, 470 kilos of hashish, 1.2 tons of marijuana buds, a crop with 995 plants, 11 luxury vehicles, seven high-value watches and the mechanical workshop where the investigated They made modifications to the cars. watchesniusdiario.esNow, the agents work on the information they can extract from the mobile phones of those under investigation. The terminals were their main business tool and therefore, the information contained in them will predictably grow this network, already considered “the largest financial institution for drug trafficking in Europe”. And everything, from a Fuenlabrada tearoom.