The Santa Cruz de Tenerife Prosecutor’s Office has requested 79 years in prison and the payment of 194,000 euros for six citizens of Nigerian origin who are accused of continued fraud, money laundering, forming and directing a criminal organization and injuries to two police officers. For this last crime, the Prosecutor’s Office is asking for one of those accused of two alleged attacks on authority, 9 months in prison and the payment of 700 euros.
The Public Ministry believes it has been proven that the members of this group were in charge of managing hotel stays and plane tickets through the word-of-mouth system through an online portal of a travel agency, charging the amounts to cards of foreign entities without consent. of its holders.
The Prosecutor’s Office considers it proven that they formed a criminal organization whose object was the repeated commission of crimes against property, in which two of the defendants occupied the highest positions and were responsible for its operation and direction.
One of them was in charge of the purchase operation on the portal so that the agency charged the amounts electronically with the necessary codes to be able to use the ticket or reservation.
The prices were charged through an intermediary, set by the members of this group, at a value much lower than the market value and had to be entered into an account whose number was provided to them in cash or by transfer.
When the entry was verified, the members of the lowest scale were in charge of the procedures with the clients, including giving them the codes so that they could print and at the same time use the corresponding ticket or reservation. All this, in order to make it as difficult as possible for the identity of the members of this group to whose bank accounts the income went to be discovered.
After some time had passed after the service had been used, the entity that issued the credit card rejected the payment as it was not authorized by its owner, with the consequent detriment for the bank that had advanced the money and the agency that had to pay it. .
The defendants were also allegedly engaged in purchasing goods with foreign cards used in the scam and with part of the profits from their activity and which were subsequently resold by the defendants in Spain or Nigeria, where a member of the gang owned a store. .
Another of the members was in charge of the sale of merchandise and guaranteeing the security of the ticket purchase and sale operations, advising the others, and another was an intermediary in the purchase and sale of tickets and kept many of the purchased goods and items in his home. sold.
The partner of another of those allegedly involved had an account opened in their name among those used to receive the income, and its main function was to make refunds and transfers, like another defendant.
The six defendants were arrested during the entry and search carried out as a result of the judicial investigation in a home located in Toledo and in which one of them attacked two police officers. Civil liability is set for the money that the travel agency had to pay for tickets and accommodations that it could not collect.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the defendants would have also tried without success to buy tickets and accommodation in the manner previously described at the travel agency for an amount of another 143,486.01 euros, although on those occasions, the maneuver was detected in time.
