A criminal network exploited EU protections for Ukrainian refugees to launder at least €100 million, EU officials have said.

The investigation, coordinated by Spanish, Cypriot, German, and French authorities with support from EU law enforcement agencies Europol and Eurojust, led to 23 arrests, including 20 in Spain.

Led by two Ukrainian brothers, Europol said the group “abused the temporary protection status granted to Ukrainian refugees by the EU since 2022”, using couriers to transport large sums of cash under the guise of personal savings.

Since 2022, millions of refugees fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine brought their savings to Europe in cash, benefitting from relaxed customs checks. Europol stated said: “Taking advantage of the exceptions put in place to facilitate the transfer of money between jurisdictions, the criminal network moved huge amounts of cash without being questioned in detail or scrutinized during customs checks

“Money mules, some of whom were family members of the network’s leaders, traveled regularly across borders declaring large cash sums as personal patrimony.

“The organized criminal network, composed of mostly Ukrainian but also Armenian, Azerbaijani, or Kazakh nationals, has been providing cash courier and underground banking services to other criminal networks.”

Eurojust added: “The group acted as a financial service for other criminals to launder their profits. The scheme facilitated the laundering of approximately €100 million.”

Once authorities began intercepting couriers, the network adapted by shifting operations to cryptocurrencies, making transactions harder to trace. Between March 2023 and February 2024, the group laundered an estimated €75 million, with €26 million in cryptocurrency frozen during raids in Cyprus.

Over 91 searches uncovered €8.2 million in cash, €27 million in frozen cryptocurrency, €2 million in bank accounts, and assets such as luxury vehicles, watches, and real estate.

Europol described the network as offering “crime-as-a-service,” facilitating money laundering for Russian-speaking and Asian criminal groups involved in drug trafficking, tax evasion, and smuggling. Chinese actors within the network played a key role in laundering funds.

“This criminal network exploited humanitarian measures to move vast sums of money and evade scrutiny,” Europol added.

By fLEXI tEAM