The Civil Guard has arrested eight people, one of whom has entered prison, after dismantling an organization dedicated to appropriating the inheritances of up to 22 deceased elderly people and which came to set up parallel companies and societies to allegedly launder money.
The armed institute has explained that those arrested, with 20 properties and 71 bank accounts that could belong to the heirs of the deceased, are being investigated for crimes of criminal organization, robbery, fraud, document forgery, misappropriation, money laundering, usurpation of civil status and illegal possession of weapons in Alicante, Valencia and Bizkaia.
The gang, which acted as a criminal organization, identified the deceased who did not have known heirs through people who worked in funeral homes and, after death, stole objects from the homes where the deceased lived.
The investigation began in May 2021, when, according to the Benemérita, the agents verified that someone had removed the judicial seals from a house located in Benissa (Alicante) in which reforms were carried out and various objects were stolen, including a motorcycle high end.
In a first phase, the agents identified two members of the group who worked in a funeral home in the Marina Alta region of Alicante and who, in addition to stealing the jewelry, passed on information to rob those same homes and obtain their bank codes.
After making sure that no family member claimed the body of the deceased, the leaders of the organization began to act: two brothers residing in Bilbao, a 63-year-old woman with studies in Law and a 54-year-old man who was an insurance mediator.
The woman was a manager of 12 companies, including two real estate agencies and four agencies, and the man was the owner of an insurance brokerage.
The real estate, located in Dénia (Alicante) and the Basque Country, were used to rent and sell the properties of the deceased.
Through the agencies, which were in Bilbao and Cantabria, they converted the deceased into guarantors of their companies through false commercial contracts, so that the deceased had a patrimonial responsibility and thus kept their assets very cheaply.
To evade taxes, the brothers used a construction and renovation company, an insurance processing office, a mechanical workshop in Bilbao, two hotels in the provinces of Murcia and Valencia, a restaurant in Dénia and two ‘offshore’ companies in Ireland. and Malta and even took control of a cultural association in Bilbao to simulate donations and non-payments while the deceased were alive.
The criminal group increased its criminal activity due to the increase in the number of elderly people who died from the latest pandemic, the difficulties families have in taking care of their bodies, and the lack of known heirs in other cases.
After the investigators accredit the participation of this group in the illegal appropriation of 20 properties with a value of more than three million euros and given the risk of flight of one of the leaders, last October seven searches were carried out in different locations from Alicante, Valencia and Bizkaia, where seven men and one woman were arrested.
Likewise, five firearms, almost 100 pieces of jewelry, 11,000 euros in cash, various computer and mobile phone devices, eight motor vehicles, a cryptocurrency wallet, 20 properties and 71 bank accounts that are being analyzed have been seized.
To date, a total of 22 deceased who have been victims of this criminal group have been identified, these two being Spanish, five French, one Belgian, four Swiss, one British, eight German, and one Finnish, with most of them lacking they from known heirs.
However, the Civil Guard does not end this operation since it does not rule out that the number of those affected could increase.
The Investigating Court No. 2 of Denia has ordered the entry into prison without bail for the female leader of the gang and has ordered precautionary measures for the rest.
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