ArmInfo. Some 142 people were arrested in a joint operation by Catalan and Spanish police against the Armenian mafia on Tuesday morning, which took place in a number of towns in Catalonia and the rest of Spain, Catalan News informs.
According to the source the suspects are allegedly part of a gang involved in drug and arms trafficking, tobacco smuggling, money laundering, sports betting fraud, and other crimes committed across Europe. In all, police carried out 73 raids in different cities, such as the Catalan capital Barcelona and nearby Badalona.
The investigation that led to the raids started in 2016, with the aim of uncovering evidence of organized crime under the supervision of high ranking Armenian gangsters. The attorney general's office says these gangsters were responsible for supervising the criminal activity carried out in one or more territories under their control. Most of the people arrested are Armenian citizens.