Fifty-five people in Mallorca and five more in Madrid have been arrested by the National Police in connection with the laundering of money derived from drug trafficking. The money was being diverted to Cuba, the Dominican Republic and the US.
'Operación Pólvora' (Operation Gunpowder) was launched after police became aware of a criminal organisation led by a Cuban living in Spain. He was diverting large amounts of money. This was used to buy properties and vehicles.
Two companies in Mallorca are also implicated in the money laundering, as they were drawing up false invoices; the illicit money was supposedly for construction work.
The police estimate that the money that was laundered amounts to at least one million euros. Raids and searches have led to the seizure of some 400,000 euros cash, more than three kilos of cocaine, sixty kilos of cutting substance and luxury goods. International bank transfers were made using front man accounts and money transfers were made through locutorios.