A chalet in the urban area of Parc Coimbra, in Mostoles, was the penultimate den of Mohamed Momen, also known as El Rubio, a 39-year-old Syrian who is considered the top “banker” of drug trafficking gangs in Europe. Able to move, according to researchers, 300 million … From the euro of large national and international cartels. In another part of Madrid, an unexpected apartment located on Antonio Muñoz Molina Street, in Rivas, housed a large part of its employees, Syrians and Moroccans, who worked as human couriers transporting the money, which, after commissioning the criminal organization, returned the money to the traffickers. It is the ancestral method of “hawala”.
The Central Organized Crime Squad once again helped Momin, the son of a late moneylender who had mastered the art of making money through this form of money laundering at home. El Rubio was already arrested in 2022, as part of Operation Caldo, when the Central Investigative Court No. 1 of the National Court imprisoned him along with dozens of his subordinates. He was then accused of running a “washing machine” amounting to $32 million annually, although it was suspected of being more than $300, until he became the leader of this type of money laundering. His clients were primarily Chinese businessmen from Cobo Calleja, Fuenlabrada, the continental center of economic fraud. But he was released with the charges, with only an obligation to appear in court to sign.
And of course he returned to the battle. But the National Police did not take their eyes off him and discovered that a lot of money could be hidden in Rivas’ Vassia Madrid apartment. Their sense of smell did not fail them. Until three years ago, the center of its operations was the El Alma de Damasco restaurant in Fuenlabrada. The institution was brutally attacked by Swedish mafia mobs, who demanded a sum of money that was not paid in full.
Now everything is centralized from the modest Rebence home. Sources in the case explained to ABC that the maneuvering process began in May. In the first week of November, sixteen people were arrested, including the leader, six of whom are already in the shadows. What was dismantled again was a kind of “banking entity” that was dedicated to receiving and transferring money from the drug trade.
The “hawala” can be summarized as sending the money that drug traffickers obtain from drugs to money launderers, who, in exchange for a commission (which can reach 3%), return it to their “owners” in their own hands. To do this, they made trips to different parts of Spain, sometimes back and forth in the same day. Typically, drug dealers use so-called “codes” in these types of deals, which are usually distinct bills handed out when an appointment is reached, as a form of safe behavior. This method has also been seen in planned drug deals, for example, in the Plenilonio shopping center in Madrid.
In this case, the “mules” carried sealed bundles of money hidden in the bays (double bottoms) of the vehicles they used to travel to meet clients. It is a much more discreet method, although it also involves other additional risks, compared to regular bank transfers and transferring profits in the form of cryptocurrencies.
For half the world
Drug traffickers then reuse the millions they made to buy new stashes and give the profits an appearance of legitimacy. Mohammed has been working for at least five years, although his father’s influence goes back at least a decade. El Rubio is supposed to be there all these years. Behind the laundering of tons of drugs to and from Colombia, the Netherlands, Spain, Brazil, Turkey, and of course China.
The defendants are now charged with drug trafficking, money laundering, membership in a criminal organization, illegal weapons possession and currency counterfeiting. Court Instructions No. 3 of Arganda del Rey.
At the beginning of this month, the National Police launched heavily armed operational groups, due to the danger of these criminals, in the exploitation phase. Eight properties were entered and registered in Madrid (4), Huelva (2), Guadalajara and Malaga. Agents confiscated more than €500,000 in cash, 15 luxury watches, two carbines, more than 170 9mm cartridges, and eight luxury vehicles.
During the investigation, 16 people were arrested in Madrid (8), Huelva (3), Guadalajara (2), Malaga, Barcelona and Valencia, in connection with the events investigated, and six of them were placed in temporary prison.
VTC fleet
The Syrian king owns a real estate company in his name, which is a real estate company, and has interests in Europe and Dubai. Although it is also clear that he was legally linked to the purchase and sale of vehicles. For example, you purchased a fleet of VTCs. Some practices that may serve as a screen to reintegrate money from the criminal world into the legal circle.
Without his father’s umbrella, he was able to live a life of luxury and extravagance, despite being the head of the family. He changed his residence in an affluent area in the north of Madrid for the urbanization of Parque Coimbra, where the majority of the population are ordinary people coexist with more than one known criminal, drug dealer and drug trafficker. They are houses with large garden areas of several hundred square metres. His cell now contained twelve.