Spain busts counterfeit credit card gang led by September 11 attacks financier
- Spanish authorities arrest 19 people in Madrid who specialised in making illegal credit cards
- Leader of gang was a 49-year-old Algerian man
Spanish police said on Saturday they dismantled a gang that cloned credit cards led by an Algerian previously jailed for helping finance the September 11 attacks in the United States.
Police said they had arrested 19 people in Madrid who specialised in making illegal credit cards by getting people’s data – such as pin numbers – in the darknet and transferring it to other cards.
They would then draw money out from cash points or buy items in stores, said the police statement.
The leader of the gang, a 49-year-old Algerian man whose name they would not reveal, had used the same process to help finance the September 11 attacks which killed nearly 3,000 people.
A police spokeswoman said the man had been tried and convicted in Spain, adding she did not know how long he had served time in jail before being released.
This time, he was cloning credit cards for his own personal benefit, she said.
Spain was the scene of a high-security mass trial in 2005 of alleged September 11 plotters, with 24 al-Qaeda suspects taking the stand, 18 of whom were jailed.