Agents of the Generalitat Police – Mossos d’Esquadra of the Criminal Investigation Division (DIC) in Camp de Tarragona and the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard arrested on February 21 in Salou (Tarragonès) a 30-year-old man, as the alleged perpetrator of the crimes of belonging to a criminal organization and electricity fraud.
The first part of the investigation began in 2022, following information that pointed to the existence of a criminal organization established in Tarragona and Terres de l’Ebre.
The exploitation of the first phase ended earlier this year with the arrest of a network of eleven people specialized in tobacco smuggling and drug trafficking. In addition, the organization also carried out the land transportation and stranding, that is, putting into the sea, the drug boats with which the traffickers moved the drugs.
During the course of the first phase of the investigation, two police actions were carried out with which two hundred and fifty kilos of hashish, twenty-two thousand euros in cash and fifty thousand packages of counterfeit tobacco were seized.
Based on these arrests, investigators went on the trail of a man who supplied drugs to members of the organization.
In March 2023, they detected that the person under investigation ran a clandestine warehouse in Ripollet where the electricity consumption was excessive considering its dimensions.
The various police surveillance and monitoring concluded that cryptocurrency mining existed within the facility.
For all these reasons, the joint team of Mossos d’Esquadra and Tarragona Civil Guard carried out an entry and investigation into the Ripollet warehouse on February 21.
The device led to the arrest of the main investigator and the intervention of 85 computers that were fraudulently connected to the electricity supply.
The investigation shows that the detainee was in charge of maintaining computer equipment and had used a network of front companies to divert profits from the production of cryptocurrencies.
Since 2021, he would have defrauded the electricity supply company of almost 4.5 million euros.
The investigation remains open and more arrests are not ruled out.
The detainee was placed at the disposal of the Investigative Court number 3 of Reus on February 23.
