Undeclared cash, flown out of the EU hidden in suitcases and everyday belongings, was the target of a four-day operation at Madrid International Airport led by Greece and Spain and supported by Frontex.
Operation “Aerial Cash Routes” took place at Madrid’s Adolfo Suárez Barajas International Airport, where Frontex and customs and law enforcement officers from seven countries worked together to seize cash leaving the EU undeclared. Spain’s Guardia Civil, the Hellenic Police – Directorate Against Organised Crime and the Hellenic Independent Authority for Public Revenue led the action.
The operation focused on cash above EUR 10 000 leaving the airport for destinations outside the EU. Carrying cash above that limit across the border without declaring it is an administrative or criminal breach and is a common way to move the profits of crime.
During the operation, officers detected EUR 21 285 in undeclared cash. In one instance, officers stopped a person travelling to China with an underage person, who had checked in three large suitcases. They discovered cash hidden in one bag, with more stashed in the child’s food packs and among the child’s belongings. The money was seized and a customs procedure was initiated.
Frontex experts shared the Agency’s experience and expertise in spotting concealed cash from their work at the EU’s external borders, where officers see the same modi operandi used to conceal money from inspection.
Cash remains one of the main ways criminal networks move value across borders. It is anonymous and easy to carry. Seizing it as it leaves the EU cuts into the profits behind drug trafficking and other serious crime.
Participating EU countries: Belgium, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain.
Partner countries: Norway.
Partners: Europol.
The operation was part of EMPACT, the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats. EMPACT is the way EU countries join forces against the most serious forms of organised crime. Instead of working case by case on their own, countries agree on shared priorities and then run joint operations against them, with support from EU agencies like Frontex and Europol.
Operation “Aerial Cash Routes” forms part of the 4.2 priority “Tracking Dirty Money”. It looks at how criminal networks move and launder their profits as the cash leaves the EU.
