The "Dubai Bank": how drug traffickers reinvent themselves as organisers of crime financing
The National Police dismantled a clandestine financial network serving international drug trafficking, linked to the Nehir vessel case and over 3.5 tonnes of cocaine.
Drug traffickers reinvented as bankers of the drug trade: the operation that uncovered the "Dubai Bank"
Some of Europe's major drug traffickers have shifted their business model: rather than organising the transport of cocaine, they now finance the operations of other criminals. According to elindependiente.com, police sources describe this transition as the leap from trafficker to drug trafficking "banker", an activity that allows them to assume fewer risks and obtain greater profits than participating directly in the movement of narcotics.
This phenomenon is at the centre of a major National Police operation against the financial structure of large organisations engaged in international cocaine trafficking. The investigation has dismantled a clandestine network called the "Dubai Bank", a parallel financial system serving criminal organisations from different countries.
From the Nehir vessel to a global financial network
The operation, coordinated by the Special Anti-Drug Prosecution Service and developed in collaboration with international police forces, began in 2021 following the interception of the Nehir vessel, which was transporting 1,835 kilograms of cocaine. The ship ended up sinking off Gijón. Subsequently, investigators recovered another 1,650 kilograms that had remained hidden aboard the vessel and were collected by members of the criminal organisation itself. In total, approximately 3.5 tonnes of cocaine had originally been loaded in South America.
However, the investigation into the Nehir went far beyond those responsible for the transport. Following the money trail, agents reached those financing the operations of other drug traffickers. There emerged the structure known as the "Dubai Bank".
Crime as a service of crime
The model described in the investigation follows the logic of "crime as a service of crime". Organisations requiring financing turn to intermediaries specialised according to the country in which they need access to funds. Money can be deposited in one country and be compensated in another, without the need to physically transfer large quantities of cash across borders.
"Without this financing, these shipments could not be moved from one country to another", emphasise the investigators. The intermediaries charge commissions ranging from approximately 1.5% to 10%-15%, depending on the country, guarantees or the level of trust between the parties. There is no fixed rate: the price depends on the operation and the risk assumed.
In exchange, criminal organisations gain access to cash, cryptocurrencies, companies, bank accounts, company cheques or property investments. The clandestine bank does not merely move money; it also offers the tools necessary to make it disappear and reintroduce it into the legal economic circuit.
More than 1,000 bitcoins traced on the blockchain
One of the keys to the investigation was the tracking of cryptocurrencies. Agents identified more than 1,000 bitcoins, valued at around 15 million euros at the time, linked to payment for financing the Nehir shipment. The analysis of the blockchain and encrypted communications made it possible to reconstruct the path of that money and connect the drug trafficking operation with the financial structure that supported it.
International cooperation was fundamental to achieving this. Europol and other agencies participated in the investigation alongside police forces from the Netherlands, Belgium, the United States, the United Kingdom and Scotland. Europol has classified this operation within the phenomenon known as "crime as a service": specialised criminals who put their knowledge and infrastructure at the disposal of other criminal organisations.
The main investigated individuals
The investigation has made it possible to identify several of the actors operating around this financial structure.
Carlos Humberto Arango Castaño, known as "Poker Face" or "Burger King", is identified as a link with suppliers and drug trafficking organisations of Colombian origin.
Alejandro Salgado Vega, alias "El Tigre", is considered by investigators one of the main targets of drug trafficking in Spain. He is currently at large and his name appears linked to various investigations and operations against drug trafficking.
Jonas Falk, known in Sweden as the "Swedish Pablo Escobar", is currently imprisoned in that country and has been linked to previous investigations for drug trafficking and other offences.
Also appearing in the investigation is an individual identified as Perikles, alias "Peri", linked to trafficking operations within this same structure.
An infrastructure that evolves at the pace of legal finance
The result of the investigation is a breakdown of a criminal business that has evolved at the same pace as the financial tools of the legal sector: cash, transfers, shell companies, property and cryptocurrencies coexist in a single structure designed to finance drug trafficking and launder its profits.
The more sophisticated the structure, the greater the distance between the person obtaining the profit and the person who ends up with the drugs aboard a vessel. The financier remains several steps above the transport, without his merchandise necessarily being cocaine. His business is the money that allows it to be bought, moved and placed on the market.
Source: Google News ES — Crime (es)