The Spanish police and Mossos d’Esquadra (the Catalan police) are carrying out a major operation in several parts of the country against the Armenian mafia, engaged, among other crimes, in sports match-fixing, arms and drug trafficking and money laundering, ABC España reported on Tuesday, June 26.

According to police sources, the Europol has also joined the process.

The police are expected to carry out a range of searches in more than 70 locations in five provinces: Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Alicante and Albacete. The same sources said close to 100 detentions are anticipated.

A secret investigation started following the murder of two members of the Georgian mafia in January in Tarrassa. Shortly afterwards, a joint police team was created, which in November of 2017 dealt a blow to the criminal organization, heir to the so-called thieves in the law installed in Spain.

The space left by the Georgians was then occupied by the Armenian organization which has been growing. These groups, spread throughout Europe, have multiple divisions throughout several countries and are governed by the same principles as other Eastern mafias, with their territorial distributions and meetings of thieves (skhodkas).