In a coordinated operation led by Spanish police, eight Albanian nationals have been arrested in connection to one of Europe's largest counterfeiting rings, funds from which were later used for international drug trafficking, as local Spanish media reports.
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| One of the Albanians is accompanied by the Spanish special anti-drug forces |
Foreign media outlets report that the police operation leading to the bust of this criminal group was codenamed "Romina" in honor of the famous Italian duo Al Bano and Romina Power, who released the hit song "Felicita" in 1982. However, Operation "Romina" tells a story of drug and marijuana traffickers. Mossos d'Esquadra and the Spanish National Police named the operation after the singer because the overwhelming majority of the apprehended members of the criminal group are Albanian. The investigation began with a police pursuit through the streets of Salou on June 23rd. A Mossos patrol spotted a vehicle speeding and intercepted it. Inside were two men carrying 6,000 euros in counterfeit 500-euro banknotes. And it wasn't the first time the police had seen this nearly perfect counterfeiting. It marked the beginning of an operation that concluded with ten arrests and the dismantling of several marijuana plantations.
The banknotes from that car in Salou were replicas of those distributed by a gang that Mossos had already dismantled in October 2022. And it wasn't just any gang but "the largest counterfeiting network in Europe," according to the Catalan police. Thus, to understand Operation "Romina," it is necessary to go back to Operation "Sentinel." This time, Mossos chose the name without musical references because the first person they managed to identify from the criminal group counterfeiting banknotes was the "sentinel," the one who safeguarded the money. By chance, a man found a bag in a field in Cervelló, near Sant Vicenç dels Horts, with 4.35 million euros in 500-euro banknotes. They were all fake but almost perfect.
If you were to rate them, the banknotes would score a 9.7 out of 10, according to Mossos investigators. Behind these banknotes were four men (all with a history of counterfeiting) who were met in "Picassent" prison in Valencia. Idle hours in the common areas of that penitentiary center were the seeds of the counterfeiting network. In 2019, they were all out of prison and only needed financing. This is where the Albanians came in, paying them for shipments and machinery. The group began production until the pandemic hit and borders closed.
The material, coming from China, stopped arriving. Unable to pay the Albanians, the solution was to give them many counterfeit banknotes. Roughly, a counterfeit 500-euro banknote is worth 25 euros.
This is the starting point of Operation "Romina," finalized this month. The banknotes in that car speeding through Salou belonged to inmates of Picassent. The police had found the Albanians who had financed them.
"It's the first time we've encountered criminal organizations financing printing machines," warned the head of the Central Unit for Counterfeiting of Mossos, Deputy Inspector Sergi Sánchez.
The pandemic meant that all the investment Albanians made with the prisoners of Picassent returned to them in the form of counterfeit, not real, banknotes. And what did they do? They tried to buy marijuana with counterfeit banknotes. In fact, Mossos believe the car in Salou was speeding because drug dealers had caught them trying to buy with fake money. All to be taken to Europe, mainly to Germany.
The operation, which now involved the Civil Guard because it was also investigating some members of the criminal group, concluded days ago when the police received data that the gang had a large quantity of marijuana to be transported to Europe. Agents carried out seven checks at homes in El Prat de Llobregat, Reus, Mont-roig del Camp, Móra la Nova, and Morell. They found everything: from guns to police badges. Later, Mossos and the Civil Guard learned that criminals were stealing drugs by impersonating police officers. And they found drugs too: in Móra la Nova, a plantation was dismantled inside an industrial warehouse containing a total of 162 kilograms of prepared marijuana for transport, valued at nearly 1 million euros. In total, ten people aged 22 to 63, eight of them of Albanian nationality, have been arrested.
Captain Héctor Muñoz, head of the Organic Unit of Judicial Police of Tarragona, explains that the group maintained a "high standard of living" without any legitimate income. Luxurious cars, mansions, expensive clothing, all combined with "strong security measures." They had bodyguards, drones to monitor plantations, and GPS devices, using encoded messages. Police forces ensure that the criminal group dedicated to marijuana trafficking they dismantled has been very active in the Tarragona area.
The Catalan police, which detailed the operation in a press conference, celebrates the arrests and removal from the streets of some very dangerous Albanians who controlled several marijuana plantations, who were armed and even attacked other criminal groups with violence to steal their marijuana.