The Civil Guard, within the framework of the Monybet operation carried out in the province of Cádiz, has dismantled a criminal organization dedicated to fixing football matches to defraud gambling operators. Four people have been arrested in the operation, including the two leaders and the goalkeeper and defense of a football club. In addition, there are 34 investigated, six of whom are active professional players in the Third Division and the rest are people who provided their identity to function as money mules.
During the searches carried out, €16,695 in cash, several cryptocurrency accounts, documentation related to bets and a large amount of mobile telephony and storage computer material have been located.
The organization would have obtained benefits in prizes of more than one million euros. In addition, it is estimated that there would be more than 30,000 people affected by bets made in good faith.
The operation began in February of last year when the Civil Guard learned through the Board of Directors of the Conil de la Frontera soccer team that their team, which was playing to enter the promotion phase, had played a final of season inconsistent with what was done during the first phase of the season. The board had observed that some players were not acting with the professionalism that the matches required, suspecting that they were involved with sports betting.
The first investigations focused on the request for data from the General Directorate of Gaming, the body in charge of controlling all sports bets made in the national territory, of the data of all bets made to Conil CF during the 2021-2022 season, as well as bettors, receiving a list of more than 100,000 bets made.
The first thing that caught the attention of the researchers was the disproportionate increase in the bets placed on the matches of this team during the second phase of the season, and it is also significant that the amount bet on those matches was much higher than the rest of the bets placed. to other football matches.
More than 300 euros per bet
The amount wagered on this team’s matches was totally disproportionate. While the bets placed on other teams were between 1 and 50 euros, the bets placed on Conil CF exceeded, in most cases, 300 euros per bet placed, this being the limit that bookmakers allow teams to place. of the Third Division, which is why bettors made several repeated bets with this amount.
To try to hide their activities, they camouflaged the “juicy” bets among other predictable bets and without any risk for First Division matches and thus not arouse the suspicions of the bookmakers and that they proceed with the blocking of the account. Another method was the use of so-called money mules, that is, people who lent their identity as bettors so that the organization could multiply its benefits, sometimes in exchange for a percentage of the benefits and other times in exchange for privileged information to carry out your own bets.
With all this information and after viewing the suspicious matches, unusual errors could be observed in professional players of the Third Division, especially in the goals conceded against Conil CF After the statements made to the team’s staff, it was possible to verify that all the Suspicions pointed to the goalkeeper and a defender, not ruling out that two other players could also be related.
The leaders of the organization that carried out the fraudulent bets were linked to the world of professional football, working as sports forecasting advisers, known as tipsters. These people were a former player from another team from Cádiz and a soccer coach and they had bought the goalkeeper and a defender from the Conileño team, who received great benefits for their actions or inactions.
The operation has been coordinated by the Civil Guard in Cádiz and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor of the Provincial Court of Cádiz, coordinated by Court number 3 of Chiclana de la Frontera.
2023-05-11 11:31:53
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