The network “benefited from personal links” with amateur and semi-professional players, some of whom have been arrested, and members of the teams” | There are 30 games under suspicion in Spain, Gibraltar and Andorra
Joint coup by Europol and the National Police against match fixing. Investigators dismantled a network that operated in grassroots football matches, from the “field” of the RFEF, the Gibraltar National League and the Andorra League, the interior ministry reported Thursday. The so-called ‘Coniferous operation’ adds 23 arrests in Badajoz, Cádiz, Ciudad Real, Córdoba, Tenerife and Ceuta, adding to the 21 arrests made in November last year in the first phase of the operation.
About thirty football matches are currently under investigation for this case, the vast majority between April and June last year, of 1, 2 and 3 RFEF, former 2B and Third, which are semi-professional, in addition to matches involving teams from the Principality of the Pyrenees and the British colony. Of the 44 detained in the two phases of the operation, 20 are football players, almost all of them from lower categories (12 in November and 8 in recent days). Among the detainees there is only one player, from the youth academy of FC, who came to play about forty matches in another first team. The benefits of the framework are estimated at more than half a million euros.
Some of those arrested sold their gaming accounts so members of the organization could place online bets on rigged matches, earning between 4,000 and 24,000 euros per gaming account.
The investigation began after the arrests and searches following the first phase of the operation, in which 21 people were arrested in the provinces of Cádiz, Badajoz, Seville and Almería for alleged membership of a criminal organization, corruption between individuals in the sports field and swindling the game- operators.
The analysis of the data enabled the researchers to delve into the organization’s modus operandi, identifying both football players who allegedly participated in solving football matches and people responsible for opening online gambling accounts and bank accounts for which the organization money in circulation. This system of account creation and transfers made it difficult to trace the capital and link the people under investigation.
The modus operandi of the criminal organization consisted of four different phases. A first phase in which the athlete provided internal information about the football teams, which gave the members of the organization and bettors a competitive advantage in terms of knowledge of last minute lineups, discards, the game system and other aspects that are well known to us.
In the second phase, the concert of sports fixing was carried out, creating coded communication groups formed by the leaders of the organization and the athletes to carry out the fixing and reap great economic benefits.
During the third phase, sports betting was done both online and in person with bookmakers. When the bets were processed online, they used different identities to avoid interrelationships between the members of the criminal network and when made in person, the bets were placed for small amounts to prevent the subsequent collection of the prize leading to the issuing certificates for the Treasury at the games rooms.
To end the fraudulent actions, the leaders of the organization divided the winnings generated during the betting between the athletes involved and the rest of the plot.
The investigation involves, in addition to the police and Europol, the Global Betting Market Investigation Service (SIGMA), dependent on the Directorate General for Gambling Regulation, the UEFA Anti-Fixing Unit, as well as La Liga and the Royal Spanish Football Federation.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
