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CRIME

Spaniard accused of helping North Korea evade US sanctions arrested

Spanish police on Friday said they had arrested a man wanted by Washington for allegedly conspiring with cryptocurrency experts to help North Korea evade US sanctions over its nuclear programme.

Spaniard accused of helping North Korea evade US sanctions arrested
Special delegate for North Korea's Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, Alejandro Cao de Benos poses in his bar "Pyongyangcafe". Photo: JOSEP LAGO/AFP.

Alejandro Cao de Benos, the founder of a pro-Pyongyang affinity organisation who bills himself as a “special delegate” for the government of North Korea, was arrested on Thursday at Madrid’s Atocha train station as he arrived from Barcelona, a police spokesman told AFP.

The 48-year-old Spaniard faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted, Spanish police said in a statement. His extradition to the United States must be approved by the Spanish government and courts, a process that can take months.

US federal prosecutors last year charged Cao de Benos and a British businessman, Christopher Emms, of conspiring to violate and evade US sanctions.

They accuse the two of arranging for American expert Virgil Griffith to travel to North Korea in April 2019 to attend the Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference which they organised.

At the event Griffith allegedly taught members of the secretive nation’s government how to use cutting-edge blockchain and cryptocurrency technology to launder money and circumvent sanctions.

Griffith, who holds a doctorate from the California Institute of Technology, was sentenced in April 2022 to 63 months in jail and fined $100,000, after pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge. Emms is still at large according to his description on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.

The United States prohibits the export of goods, services or technology to North Korea without special permission from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Cao de Benos, a descendant of Spanish aristocrats, appeared before a High Court judge who released him without conditions while the extradition process runs its course.

In a message posted on X, formerly Twitter, he thanked police for their “good treatment and personal support”.

“There will be no extradition. The US accusation, besides being false, does not exist in Spain,” he added.

Cao de Benos founded the Korean Friendship Association in 2000, a club that is officially recognised by Pyongyang and claims on its website to have more than 10,000 members around the world.

The former IT consultant has also coordinated visits by foreign journalists to North Korea and has acted as a middleman between the country’s reclusive communist regime and foreign investors.

In 2016 he opened a small North Korean-themed bar, the Pyongyang Cafe, in his hometown of Tarragona on Spain’s Mediterranean coast.

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CRIME

Europol bust cocaine gang with arrests in Marbella and Canary Islands

Europol said Thursday that a crime ring smuggling drugs into Europe had collapsed as the result of an investigation involving 40 arrests and the seizure of eight tonnes of cocaine.

Europol bust cocaine gang with arrests in Marbella and Canary Islands

The Hague-based European police force said the entire cartel, whose leaders were based in Turkey and Dubai, had been dealt a major blow after a final set of arrests Wednesday.

The vast three-year-long operation involved police forces from a dozen countries and ranged from Brazil to Spain via Turkey.

According to Europol, the final phase of the operation began with the discovery in August 2023 by the Spanish Guardia Civil of 700 kilos (1,540 pounds)of cocaine in a boat off the Canary Islands, crewed by Croat and Italian citizens.

After exchanging their findings with other police forces, the investigators found links with previous seizures which led to the identification of the masterminds.

In all, 40 people were arrested in six countries, including two top Croat members of the network, who were arrested at the end of 2023 in Istanbul, police said.

The last four arrests took place on Wednesday in Spain, according to Europol.

In one operation witnessed by an AFP journalist, heavily armed members of Spain’s Guardia Civil arrested a 40-year-old man at dawn at his home near Marbella, a seaside resort popular with drug traffickers.

The smugglers shipped cocaine from South America to logistical hubs in west Africa and the Canary Islands.

The drugs were then sent on to centres in Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Italy and Spain for distribution across Europe.

Many of the drug network’s assets, with a total value of several tens of millions of euros, had been seized or frozen, Europol added.

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