The Guardia Civil has concluded a complex investigation initiated at the beginning of 2024, which has led to the dismantling of a criminal network specialized in massive frauds with means of payment, whose victims were spread throughout almost the entire national territory. Although the fraudulent charges were mainly carried out in the region of Vega Baja del Segura and in the town of Torrevieja (Alicante), the operation has also resulted in arrests in Ibiza. The investigation in Ibiza has been the responsibility of the detachment of Santa Eulària.
As reported by the armed forces in a statement released by Europa Press, the operation has allowed to clarify more than 986 scams, with an economic damage of more than 200,000 euros, and to identify nearly 200 victims. A total of 14 people have been arrested – eleven men and three women aged between 22 and 52 years – in different locations in the provinces of Alicante, Albacete and on the island of Ibiza.
The investigation was launched after detecting a “significant increase in related scams”. Due to the complexity of the criminal network, the actions were developed in three coordinated phases, which allowed the criminal organization to be completely dismantled, three house searches to be carried out in Torrevieja and abundant technological material used for the commission of the crimes to be seized.
A clandestine circuit of cards and “mules”.
The agents found the existence of a flexible clandestine circuit dedicated to the illicit marketing of means of payment, both physical and virtual, structured in different levels. The network ranged from those technically responsible for illicitly obtaining bank data, through intermediaries, to the so-called “mules”, responsible for carrying out the scams by means of cash withdrawals and fraudulent payments at ATMs, stores, gambling halls and betting shops.
The modus operandi was mainly based on the creation of fraudulent links and web pages impersonating banks, leading telecommunications companies and even public bodies. These pages were disseminated through massive smishing campaigns, i.e. the sending of fraudulent SMS messages.
The victims, deceived, provided their banking credentials, which were then used by the criminals to wrap cards in mobile devices and make fraudulent charges and withdrawals.
Luxury villas and a fraud “laboratory”.
Between July and August 2025, in the first phase of the operation, the Guardia Civil focused its investigations on the upper echelons of the organization. In a luxury villa in Torrevieja, the agents located a real “laboratory” of massive card enrollment, where they seized 65 latest-generation cell phones, cryptocurrency wallets, anonymous prepaid cards and various computer equipment.
Two people were arrested in this action, one of whom was imprisoned by order of the Court of Instruction number 2 of Torrevieja, which prevented the circulation of numerous devices that would have exponentially multiplied the number of scams.
In a second phase, carried out between January and October 2025, the investigation focused on a branch dedicated to the fraudulent use of physical cards, mainly from a well-known bank. In October, a new entry and search was carried out in another villa in Torrevieja, with the arrest of three members of the criminal group, who were placed at the disposal of the Orihuela Court of Instruction.
Arrests in Ibiza and other provinces
The third phase of the investigation, carried out between November 19 and 24, 2025, led to the arrest of the remaining members of the criminal group in different locations in Alicante, Albacete and Ibiza, despite the advanced security measures adopted by the organization.
In the course of the actions as a whole, 74 cell phones, 85 SIM cards, three computers, two tablets, a point-of-sale terminal (POS), routers, frequency inhibitors, prepaid cards worth 12,000 euros, cryptocurrency wallets and other technological devices were seized.
The detainees are charged, according to their degree of participation, with the following crimes: continuous fraud, theft, receiving, forgery of documents, membership of a criminal organization and usurpation of civil status.
The investigation, led by the Investigation Area of the Main Post of Torrevieja and with the collaboration of units of the Civil Guard in up to 40 provinces, remains open. The existence of victims in other European countries such as Lithuania, Cyprus, Poland, France and Greece is not ruled out.
With this operation, the Guardia Civil has dealt a “hard blow” to organized crime specialized in technology scams, completely neutralizing its operational capacity.
