23 arrested in Spain as 'Nigerian Letter' scam is broken up

Twenty-three people have been arrested by the Spanish National Police who have broken up an organisation which defrauded an estimated two million Euros in the "Nigerian letters fraud", and a variant of a false inheritance.

There 18 arrests made in Madrid, 4 in Albacete, and one in Ciudad Real. The nationalities of those arrested are Nigerian, Spanish and Romanian.

A statement from the National Police said that they laundered the enormous profits from their scams, and pretended that they were building a commercial centre in Lagos, Nigeria, similar they said to the one in Alcobendas in Madrid.

Thousands of letters and emails were sent out daily to potential victims in an attempt to convince them that they were about to receive an important sum of money, from an inheritance of an unknown relative, or that they had won a prize in the Spanish lottery. However to get their money they had to pay a sum for administration and taxes which is where the fraudsters made their money. They even arranged interviews in luxury hotels and showed up in top of the range vehicles to try and make the frauds stick.

Police have carried out 12 searches and found false dollar bills, names and addresses of potential foreign victims, hundreds of prepared envelopes, more than 90 mobile phones and computer material. 54 bank accounts have been blocked and three properties and three vehicles embargoed.

The investigation started last August when the authorities in Denmark raised the alarm, after a Danish subject had fallen victim to the Spanish group.