Overview
- Police arrested nine suspects on Mallorca and in the province of Barcelona after coordinated raids reported Thursday that included a major sweep at a luxury villa in Sitges.
- Investigators say at least 3,500 German online buyers were defrauded and total losses exceed €9 million according to Spanish authorities.
- The group ran fake e‑commerce shops that took payments but never delivered goods and used social‑engineering to pose as bank security teams to seize online‑bank access.
- Proceeds were routed through about 16 Spanish companies, including a sham Mallorca boat‑rental used to disguise payments, and more than 100 bank accounts were previously frozen during the probe.
- Officers seized roughly €2 million in value including cash, about €200,000 in cryptocurrency, gold, luxury watches, vehicles and jetskis while cross‑border work with German prosecutors and Europol continues and prosecutions are expected.