Man on Spain’s most wanted list found hiding in Bucharest

A man on the Spanish Police's "Most Wanted" list was captured in Romania, where he had been hiding for years in a house on the outskirts of Bucharest.

Daniel M.V. from Murcia, who created no less than 55 false identities to use in his criminal activities, led a criminal organization specialized in cyber fraud, generating illegal revenues of over EUR 10 million. He was caught in Bucharest following a special operation involving several Spanish police structures in collaboration with Romanian authorities.

According to a press release from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior cited by Digi24, the investigation in this case began in 2021 when five people reported being scammed after their WhatsApp accounts were hijacked. During the investigation, over 300 complaints were collected for various types of fraud - renting non-existent vacation homes, loans through identity theft, and others.

Five members of the group were identified in Murcia, Malaga, Alicante, and Tenerife.

Spanish authorities determined that the leader, a Spanish citizen originally from Murcia, against whom 33 judicial investigations had been initiated across Spain, had fled to Romania a few years ago, from where he continued his criminal activities. He had acquired a high-performance printer to produce identity documents used to open online bank accounts with stolen or false identities, to launder the fraudulently obtained money, which he later used to purchase cryptocurrencies.

Daniel M.V. was extradited to Spain and incarcerated in a prison in Navarra awaiting trial.

(Photo source: Viorel Margineanu/Dreamstime.com)