Spanish police launch raids against Armenian mafia ring

MADRID: Hundreds of police officers carried out raids across Spain on Tuesday as part of an operation against an Armenian mafia ring which authorities said would result in the arrest of 142 suspects.

Over a thousand agents took part in the raids in 73 buildings in six provinces, including Alicante, Barcelona and Valencia on Spain’s Mediterranean coast, the interior ministry said in a statement.

The operation, carried out with the aid of Interpol and Europol, targeted "one of the biggest organised crime groups of Armenian origin based in Europe", which is involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, arms trafficking, tobacco smuggling and illegal sports betting, the statement added.

Police began their investigation in 2016 following the murder of two men linked to a major Georgian organised crime group, which was "intimately linked" to the Armenian ring.