The National Police, in a joint operation with LaLiga and Europol, dismantled a criminal organization dedicated to fixing football matches in the field of the RFEF 3rd division, arresting eleven people in Melilla and six in Granada.
As reported this Thursday by the National Police in a statement, among the detainees are those responsible and players linked to a soccer team from the 3rd division RFEF, as well as other teams with which they clashed, for the alleged commission of the crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, corruption between individuals in the sports field, fraud, money laundering and document falsification.
The agents, as a result of searches carried out at a travel agency in the city of Melilla and at the Royal Melilla Football Federation, seized numerous documents and electronic devices related to the facts investigated. The collaboration of the Global Gambling Market Research Service (SIGMA) was decisive, according to the statement.
The investigation began last February when the General Directorate for the Regulation of Gambling, under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, informed the agents of the existence of several alerts received from different online betting houses. These reported suspicions about multiple bets made from Melilla on specific results of soccer matches played by a team from the autonomous city.
In parallel, LALIGA reported an anonymous communication received through its whistleblowing channel, in which it warned about suspicious practices by that same football team related to sports fixing, as well as irregularities in the collection of aid and subsidies whose money used for sports betting.
After investigating, the agents identified a complex criminal network, evidencing that the team president himself, involving players he trusted, was the one who allegedly managed the sports fixing. The players also used third parties in their environment to materialize the bets and thus avoid being linked to the bets placed and the matches played.
The investigation focused on the matches played in the last leg of the competition, once the team investigated had been relegated, at which time the bookmakers alerted the receipt of a large number of bets on specific results, or very bulky, with the city of Melilla as their epicenter.
On the other hand, the police actions carried out have proven that the same sports club has been the beneficiary of subsidies used fraudulently, foreseeably, with which the amounts receivable increased. Seven football matches are still being investigated and new arrests have not been ruled out, and up to now it has not been possible to quantify the total amount defrauded from the bookmakers.
Likewise, the documentation obtained in the records of the Royal Melilla Football Federation and other commercial entities in Melilla is being analysed. The aforementioned entities could have issued invoices for work not carried out or have recharged the original amount in order to defraud the Royal Spanish Football Federation into paying the amount of said invoices.
