Police net record 25-million-euro cash haul in money-laundering bust

A police operation in the United States last week dealt a deadly blow to a money-laundering gang, which had operated both in Miami and Spain. Among those detained was Álvaro López Tardón, the head of a Miami mafia group who spent several years based in Madrid. The gang is considered to be one of the biggest drug-money-laundering networks in Europe.

But the joint operation between the FBI and the Spanish National Police did not stop there. On Monday, agents spent 16 hours searching a luxury apartment in La Moraleja, a wealthy suburb of Madrid. The property belonged to López Tardón, and contained a total of 25 million eurosin cash. According to the Interior Ministry, the find constitutes the biggest single haul of cash the police have ever recovered.

The cash was found in two stashes in a luxury apartment in Madrid

Of the 21 detained gang members, the majority are Spanish, although there were also three Americans, a Colombian and an Indian. All of those arrested are facing charges in connection with laundering drug money, trafficking of illegal substances, tax fraud and illicit association.

The money was found in denominations of 50, - 100 and - 200 euros. A total of 20 million euroswas located in a compartment measuring just 1.5 meters in depth, a meter long and 60 centimeters wide, with another 5 million euroslocated in a second compartment.

As well as finding cash, agents working on so-called Operation Azaleas have located five firearms as well as 21 properties in Spain and four in the United States. More than 60 vehicles have also been seized, including a Ford Cobra worth more than 2 million euros, a Rolls Royce, a Ferrari Enzo, an Aston Martin, a couple of Lamborghinis, a Bugatti Veyron and several Mercedes Benz, according to the public prosecutor. The total value of the assets seized is said to be around 75 million euros.

During the 1990s, Álvaro López Tardón worked in door security for nightclubs, from where he allegedly controlled drug trafficking. The current head of the Los Miami gang later changed his criminal activity, managing funds raised from drug dealing. He is alleged to have run an organized gang, which was well known on the Madrid nightlife scene. The group sold drugs as well as laundering the funds earned from trafficking.

Tardón is alleged to have managed the profits, but without ever having direct contact with illegal substances. He was like a banker for drug dealers, according to the National Police, being an intermediary between the Colombian cartels and the distributors of their products in Spain.

Last week, the public prosecutor in Miami announced that the gang had been broken up, and that 16 people had been arrested in Spain, with another four arrests made in Miami, including the head of the gang. Those arrested in Florida - Álvaro López Tardón, Artemio López Tardón, Fabián Krentz, David W. Pollack and Vicente Orlando Caredelle - are accused of laundering 26 million eurosin the United States.

Artemio apparently spent long periods in Spain and was in charge of distributing and selling drugs in Madrid, according to the Florida state prosecutor. He would then send the money to his brother Álvaro, in Miami, who laundered it with his partners Krentz and Pollack through the purchase of more than a dozen apartments and expensive cars.