- The organization used fake identities to commit fraud and sell electronic devices
- 12 people have been arrested in the provinces of Burgos and Bizkaia, and 3 searches have been carried out in Barakaldo, Bilbao and Miranda de Ebro
The CYGANSKY operation has been developed jointly by the Organic Judicial Police Unit of Álava and the area of crimes against the heritage of the Ertzaintza Police Station of Bilbao. Within the framework of the aforementioned operation, which has been coordinated through the Intelligence Center against Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO), a criminal organization dedicated to money laundering, documentary falsehood, fraud and usurpation of civil status has been dismantled.
The investigation began in March 2024, when during routine inspections carried out by the Fiscal and Border Patrol (PAFIF) of the Civil Guard Command of Álava, suspicious shipments of parcel were detected to an address in Miranda de Ebro, on behalf of various people with no apparent relationship between them. During the investigation, the existence of a criminal organization that was using usurped identities to formalize mobile phone contracts in a fraudulent manner, obtaining high-end devices (phones, tablets, televisions…), was initially accredited.
In the same month of March they began an investigation in the Ertzain-etxea of Bilbao following a sale that some people were going to make in a shopping establishment in Bilbao and that raised the suspicions of the agents. Through various inquiries it was known that these people acquired technological products through second-hand sales applications on the Internet illegally without pausing to pay them or even making them believe through deceptions that they had paid for these products, by mistake, more than agreed and receiving transfers in value of what was supposedly overpaid. Then they sold these products in physical stores of sale.
In the course of the investigation, the CITCO detected the coincidence between Operation CIGANSKY of the Civil Guard, and Operation ANITZ of the Ertzaintza. In both investigations, both the alleged perpetrators and the domiciles used to commit the illegal acts investigated were coincident, in addition to some of the documentation used to usurp the identities of the alleged victims.
These identity usurpations caused serious harm to the victims, who unknowingly acquired significant debts with the companies, and were registered in the files of delinquents. This situation put these victims in a situation of absolute helplessness, and they were summoned for trial, and even search warrants were issued against some of them in some of the cases.
For this reason it was agreed to jointly develop the investigations in a joint operation called CIGANSKY-ANITZ, of cooperation between the operative units involved by both police forces.
In the course of the operation, a total of 12 people have been detained: 5 in the province of Burgos and 7 in Bizkaia, and 3 entries and registrations have been carried out in properties located in the towns of Miranda de Ebro, Bilbao and Barakaldo. The arrests and house searches were carried out jointly by units of the Ertzaintza (agents of the Ertzain-etxea of Bilbao, Intervention Unit, Mobile Brigade and Canine Unit) and the Civil Guard (Organic Judicial Police Unit of Álava, PAFIF of Álava, Reserve Unit of Álava, Team Pegaso of Álava, and Cantabria Cinological Group).
In the registries, documentation and objects that prove the criminal acts investigated have been intervened: original and photocopied documentations of usurped identities, documents justifying money transfers, various electronic devices on which allegations of fraud weighed, a cryptocurrency seedbed, and abundant documentation related to the cause that will be studied.
This investigation has so far succeeded in clarifying more than 50 complaints filed throughout the national territory related to the following facts:
- Fraudulent contracts of approximately 200 telephone lines.
- Sale of illicitly obtained products for an approximate amount of 192,000 euros.
- Economic transactions between members of the organization for an approximate amount of 254,000 euros.
- Transactions and remittances of money abroad for the amount of about 20,000 euros.
This operation is a major blow against organized fraud, the underground economy and the usurpation of false identities to commit crimes.
After being brought to justice, two of the detainees in Miranda de Ebro have been placed in prison on a precautionary basis. The Ertzaintza and the Organic Judicial Police Unit of the Command of the Civil Guard of Álava have conducted the proceedings conducted by Examining Court number ONE of Miranda de Ebro (Burgos).