Research on the plot of scams in sports bets dismantled by the National Police in May in Operation Mrasal leads to Iran. The investigations of the National Police Center for Integrity in Sports and Betting (Cenidid Telegram where the network achieved the codes that allowed it to illegally access the satellite television signal before the images were broadcast and, thus, make fraudulent bets with which it allegedly cheated millions of euros to game houses.
The Spanish Police detected the use of this sophisticated and new system in matches of the last World Cup, played in Qatar in the late 2022, and LaLiga of last season, as well as in meetings of the German Bundesliga and Soccer competitions of Asia and South America. Interpol and the European Union Agency for Police Cooperation (Europol) have issued two notifications to alert this unknown fraud so far.
In the case of Interpol, those responsible have issued the police of the 196 countries that integrate it what is known as “purple notification”, a communication in which it explains the mode of operation of criminal organizations for authorities to take “preventive measures.” In this case, the police agency recommends “strongly” that, in addition, it is transferred “any information on investigations” in which this system appears, which emphasizes that it is used by “criminal organizations with high technological sophistication,” according to an internal document. In the same sense, Europol asks the EU police to share “any relevant case” that they discover from this fraud, which stands out that allowed the plot to obtain “millions of euros of illicit profits”.
In Spain, the investigation is still open and about twenty people have already been arrested, including the one indicated by the Police as an alleged leader, Bogdan Voro -Enci, a Romanian citizen without a history that resides in the town of Cabanillas del Campo (Guadalajara, 10,000 inhabitants), and Juan Gayá Salom, one of the main forecasts of sports betting (tipster) from Europe with thousands of followed in social networks. The main ones involved are accused of crimes of belonging to criminal organization, corruption among individuals in the sports field, scams to the game operators, documentary falsehood, counterfeit currency and whitish.
The Mursal Operation began in 2020, after detecting the cented bets on line Suspicious in international table tennis competitions, a sports modality that continued to be disputed during the pandemic. The investigations, which is directed by the judge of the National Court María Tardón, put the focus on Yavor Ivanov Andreev, a former Bulgarian player of this sport that resided in Spain. Through it, the researchers arrived in Voro -Enci, with which Andreev allegedly exchanged information to bet on competitions allegedly rigged with sports worldwide. The investigations revealed that, in addition to the purchase of players – there are six team players from Romania League 3 charged in this country for these events – the plot used two novel systems in which it took advantage of what in technical language is known as delays (delays) of sports broadcasts to make fraudulent bets.
This delay with which the images of the meetings arrive at the screens of the game operators (between 20 and 120 seconds, according to the Europol document) allowed them to make dozens of winning bets. In the most sophisticated of the two systems, the network used to parabolic antennas 2.40 meters in diameter – more than double the usual – installed in the domicile of the alleged leader. With them, it connected to the satellites and intercept the images sent by the cameras from the stadiums before they arrived at television production studies and were broadcast.
To do so, it used some codes (known as feeds) with whom he mocked the coding of the television signal and, thus, managed to receive it in advance in his own computer. Then, both he and other members of the plot bet on the modality known as “live” or with the English term live —In which the fees paid change their value with great speed – to which team was going to score the following goal, throw a corner or receive a card.
These codes supposedly got them in an Iranian Telegram channel called Hack Sat Feed (apocopated form of Hacker Satellite Feed) Where users share them illegally. In its notification, Interpol emphasizes that with this system it was able to “get ahead of the signal that game operators receive” and “bet on circumstances or events that already knew the result, eliminating chance and consummating the scam.” Spanish police inquiries have found indications that they did so in Asian leagues football meetings, such as the one played in China, and South American, as well as in ATP tennis matches.
The second method used by the plot was to send one of its members to the stadium where the meeting was played – a novel figure that the Spanish police have baptized as “announcer” and Europol as courtsiding– To report on real time phone of what was happening in the field. The investigation points out that the network used this system in several World Cup matches. Among them, Cameroon-Suiza and Portugal-Ghana of November 24; the Cameroon-Brazil of December 2; and Poland-France and England-Senegal the next day. To do this, the plot transferred to the country of the Persian Gulf a person not yet identified.
Five 'broadcasters' in Spain
This system was also used in a classification match for the World Cup event, which Australia and Peru played on June 13 of that year and won the oceanic team in penalties. Police have also found indications of scams for this system in five LaLiga games last season. Specifically, Betis-Almería and Villarreal-Osasuna, played on October 16 and 17, 2022; Sevilla-Valencia, from the 18th of the same month; Celta-Getafe, of October 24; and Sevilla-Real Sociedad, of November 9. He also used it to bet in two games of the Copa del Rey (those played by La Nucia, an Alicante team that militates in the second RFEF, against UD Las Palmas and Valencia in December 2022 and January of this year) and one of the Bundesliga (the Berlin-Wolfsburg Union of September 18 of last year). Agents have identified five of the speakers used in these matches in Spain.
Europol stands out in its report that, to make the bets on line Without shooting the alerts of the game and police houses, “the criminal network used a large number of stolen identities.” On other occasions of what the European agency calls “facilitators –mules In the jargon of the Spanish Police – to create betting accounts, carry them out and collect the profits on behalf of the criminals. ”The investigation has not yet allowed to realize the money they managed to pocket, although the first police estimates point to millions of euros that were hidden in bank accounts around the world and cryptocurrency wallets.
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