OLAF – the European anti-fraud agency – has issued a press release setting out the assistance it has given to Spain’s National Police. The assistance appears to have been largely on the intelligence and analysis side.
As stated in the press release:
“As part of the investigation, the Spanish National Police and Customs Surveillance Service arrested four individuals in the Spanish region of Catalonia, three of whom are Russian nationals. The operation also resulted in the seizure of 13,000 kilograms of a chemical compound subject to export restrictions, at the Port of Barcelona.
The investigation revealed that a Spanish company, managed by Russian nationals, had established a sophisticated logistical and economic scheme to export internationally sanctioned chemical products to Russia. This network involved the use of shell companies in Armenia and Kyrgyzstan to disguise the true destination of the goods, which were later rerouted to Russia”.
The Police have also issued a press release, stating that the arrests were in the Catalan towns of Sant Feliu de Guisols (Girona), Cerdanyola del Vallès and Santa Perpètua de Mogoda (Barcelona), and that the operation included searches at residential properties.
This is the first announced enforcement of EU sanctions in Spain since April 2023.
This is also the first announced operation said to have been aided by intelligence-gathering by OLAF.