A Russian organized crime network in Costa Blanca has been uncovered and dismantled following the largest ever counter-crime operation, named “Testudo”. During the joint operation with

Europol, 18 raids were carried out and 23 criminas were put under arrest. For Spain, it is the major crackdown on money-laundering gangs led by the Russian-based organised crime (RBOC).

Among those 23 criminals arrested in Altea, Alicante, Finestrat, Ibiza, Madrid and Valencia, several appear to be Russian nationals (photo by Dickelbers, Wikimedia commons).

As Policia Nacional reported yesterday, as reported by El País, the raids resulted in the discovery of over €300,000 in cash, weapons and 16 luxury cars. According to the investigation started in 2013, the Russian crime leaders have had on their payroll the local officials and politicians, businessmen and lawyers across the country.

Using information from a variety of sources, Costa Blanca police have built up a database of around 100 people they believe to be the most dangerous gang members. In fact, catching them is a matter of time, police said.

For example, recently in Spain, Grigory Kazansky, the former general director of the NPP Salyut, was detained. Kazansky last year was accused of embezzling 91 million rubles, after which he fled to Spain and opened a restaurant in Barcelona. The issue of extradition of the former top manager has not yet been resolved, but the Spanish authorities will likely make a decision about his extradition very soon.

Grigory Kazansky is one of the many who hide from justice in Spain 

The Russian criminals used to carry out banking operations by transferring funds whose origins could not be sufficiently justified. Among their common activities is transferring large amounts of money through the Spanish territory to and from abroad, as well as using ghost firms and front men. Traditionally, the Russian criminals were inclined to buy luxury properties and legal businesses on the seashore. That is still a popular scheme that allows them to legalize their profit from criminal activities.

This is how Kazansky acted for example, and this is how Alexander Chikovani acts, another criminal who is also wanted by various Russian law enforcement agencies for a number of financial frauds. Now Chikovani is also hiding in Spain, in the Costa Blanca region. Together with his wife, Ksenia Chikovani, he runs a hotel and restaurant business. At the end of 2019, Italian and Spanish MEPs sent a letter to Spanish officials urging them to pay attention to Chikovani, but there are still no results.

On Monday, Operation Testudo finally dismantled the criminal network that used to invest dirty money from their criminal activities in Spain to the legal businesses like restaurants, hospitality and the real estate sector, as well as other property on the Spanish coast. But there remains many criminals in Spain, like Chikovani, who do exactly the same thing, but have yet to be arrested.

EU increased its budgetary support in anti-mafia activity

First thing to remember is the European MPs are calling to stop the RBOC. Over the last three decades, the role of Russian organised crime in Europe has increased significantly. When Russian businessmen and gangsters moved overseas, they took their personal connections with them. In other words, people like Chikovani have brought the dangerous criminal culture to Spain. Today, these Russian criminals operate less on the street and more in the shadows: as allies, facilitators and suppliers for local European gangs and widespread criminal networks.

The EU parliament stresses that Europe is not a Russian gangster playground, and the recent police operation’s success proved that. To get rid of the RBOC and other ethnic criminal networks, the EU members and bodies need to concentrate on targeting criminal assets and sharing information between security and law-enforcement agencies.

Additionally, a point often overlooked is budgetary support and leveraging diplomatic ties where possible. Often, the over-bureaucratized procedures just deteriorate the situation. Commenting on the recent success, the Spanish police statement said: “Profits from these criminal activities were invested in Spain in various businesses, mainly in leisure, hospitality and the real estate sector, through the Russian businessmen were linked to crime syndicates”.