Overview
- Thirty suspects were detained in an operation centered in the Madrid region with arrests also in France, Lleida, Albacete, Plasencia and Guadalajara, and two have been remanded to prison.
- The probe began in early 2025 after a financial firm flagged an attempted purchase using a usurped identity, leading investigators to an organized network based in Ciempozuelos.
- Investigators found a home “laboratory” that produced sophisticated fake national IDs along with forged pay slips and work histories, supported by access to real personal data and altered mailing addresses.
- The group recruited homeless people and drug users—typically paid about €1,000—to appear at dealerships, grooming them with clothes, disguises and hotel rooms and directing them via dedicated phones.
- Police recovered high-end cars valued at about €1.26 million and seized 33 phones, four computers, €7,000 in cash, €34,000 in jewelry and 32 fake IDs, with vehicles traced to resale in France, Germany and Romania under alleged fraud and document-forgery offenses.