The fight against money laundering in the ports of Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife has revealed that the true holy grail for authorities is not the drug shipments, but the technical accounting of the organizations. Throughout Spain during the year 2024, the UDEF Central of the National Police managed to seize a record amount of 131.69 million euros. This overall balance is broken down into 99.5 million euros in real estate, 17.64 million in banking products, 9.7 million in vehicles —including a Bugatti worth 850,000 euros, the most expensive seized to date— and 4.82 million in cash. The OECD in its 2025 report has warned about the operations in West Africa, an activity that is moving money via hawala: fishing.
The profession of hawalero
In Las Palmas, there are, or would be. Hawaladars act as intermediaries who maintain accounting records in simple Excel tables or notebooks with codes. It is precisely this structure of money transmission that the UDEF is attempting to choke economically to ensure that, once sentences are served, criminals cannot rebuild their financial empires.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of the OECD is an independent intergovernmental body that develops and promotes policies to protect the global financial system from money laundering, among other issues. The report in which the Sepblac of the Bank of Spain collaborated for FATF in 2025, which Canarymaritime has accessed, details that these methods are used by organizations structured with international presence and where fishing plays a key role. Trade-based systems facilitate the movement of funds through ‘bounces’ before reaching the final destination of the goods, often involving import-export companies, freight forwarders, and customs agents. The cited examples include the trade of commodities and international transactions of automobiles, particularly with stolen vehicles.
Free Zones and Maritime Routes
Another area of maximum concern for authorities is the free trade zones (FTZ). Although their objective is to facilitate global trade, the report documents cases where the lower regulatory oversight pressure is exploited for illicit activities. The vulnerabilities in these zones allow groups linked to the financing of terrorism (FT) to hide the true origin or destination of goods by: sending cargo through multiple ports or countries to give the appearance of legality, using false documentation and falsified bills of lading to misrepresent the final recipient, and evading international sanctions and capital controls.
The Hawala System in the Sahara-Mauritania Axis
In regions such as the Sahara and Mauritania, the fishing industry becomes a key arena for the use of alternative payment methods. Due to traditional cultural practices and the geographical configuration, the Hawala system emerges as a fundamental tool for subsistence and trade. This ‘clandestine banking’ allows evasion of regulated financial sectors, being preferred for its ability to avoid restrictions on exchange rates and high banking fees.
News written by José L. Jiménez. Edited and verified by Gara H. Vega. Cross-referenced information without institutional filters. This analysis has not been funded by official advertising nor conditioned by lobby interests.
