Spanish police arrested 80 people in raids on Chinese mobsters and accomplices, including a Spanish porn star, suspected of illegally laundering hundreds of thousands of euros, authorities said on Tuesday.
Police in Operation Emperor also seized six million euros (US$7.8 million) in cash in hundreds of raids across the country, junior security minister Ignacio Ulloa told reporters.
Top anti-corruption prosecutor Antonio Salinas told reporters the network laundered between 200,000 and 300,000 euros a year, dodging taxes, bribing officials and forging documents.
He said the racket was made up of traders who sold contraband goods in Spain, laundered the money and transferred it to China.
“It is a criminal organisation led by Chinese people who laundered money,” Salinas said.
“They import all kinds of merchandise which dodges the Spanish authorities and is distributed throughout our territory, and they send the money illegally earned to China,” paying bribes and forging documents on the way, he said.