{"id":178478,"date":"2026-01-15T03:55:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T08:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/15\/europol-and-spanish-police-arrest-34-in-crackdown-on-black-axe-criminal-network\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T03:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T08:55:08","slug":"europol-and-spanish-police-arrest-34-in-crackdown-on-black-axe-criminal-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/15\/europol-and-spanish-police-arrest-34-in-crackdown-on-black-axe-criminal-network\/","title":{"rendered":"Europol and Spanish Police arrest 34 in crackdown on Black Axe criminal network"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/securityaffairs.com\/186819\/security\/europol-and-spanish-police-arrest-34-in-crackdown-on-black-axe-criminal-network.html\">Europol and Spanish Police arrest 34 in crackdown on Black Axe criminal network<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/securityaffairs.com\/186819\/security\/europol-and-spanish-police-arrest-34-in-crackdown-on-black-axe-criminal-network.html\">https:\/\/securityaffairs.com\/186819\/security\/europol-and-spanish-police-arrest-34-in-crackdown-on-black-axe-criminal-network.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-01-12 07:15:37<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"securityaffairs.com\">securityaffairs.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Europol coordinated a successful joint operation with Spanish, Bavarian, and German authorities resulting in the arrest of 34 suspected members of the notorious Black Axe criminal network primarily in Spain, with significant operations in Seville, Madrid, M\u00e1laga, and Barcelona. Black Axe, a Nigerian-origin organization with a vast global reach, has been responsible for numerous high-profile cybercrimes such as fraud, trafficking, and robbery which collectively generate billions of euros per year. This operation not only targeted the core members but also managed to identify and seize assets worth \u20ac119,352 in bank accounts and \u20ac66,403 in cash. Notably, the group exploits vulnerable Spanish nationals, particularly from high-unemployment regions, as money mules. Europol played a crucial role in aiding intelligence coordination, supporting data analysis, and in-person reconnaissance to effectively dismantle the group&#8217;s illicit operations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key Points:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Europol led the arrest of 34 suspects in Spain linked to the global criminal organization Black Axe.<\/li>\n<li>The operation primarily targeted Seville but also made arrests in Madrid, M\u00e1laga, and Barcelona.  <\/li>\n<li>Investigators found significant assets including \u20ac119,352 in bank accounts and \u20ac66,403 in cash.<\/li>\n<li>The Black Axe organization primarily exploits vulnerable Spaniards from high-unemployment areas for money laundering.<\/li>\n<li>Europol&#8217;s support included data analysis, intelligence coordination, and on-site assistance to help locate and disrupt the group&#8217;s extensive criminal network.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Europol and Spanish Police arrest 34 in crackdown on Black Axe criminal network https:\/\/securityaffairs.com\/186819\/security\/europol-and-spanish-police-arrest-34-in-crackdown-on-black-axe-criminal-network.html Publish&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":178479,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/securityaffairs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-29-1024x768.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178478"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178480,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178478\/revisions\/178480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}