An investigation started in 2010, exploited in 2012 with the arrest of a criminal organization of Chinese origin. It was the first major operation against the so-called Chinese mafia, led in Spain by businessman Gao Ping. Chinese citizens, Spanish businessmen, bankers, and even a porn actor, Nacho Vidal, and his sister were charged.
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The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, together with the Drug and Organized Crime Unit of the Police and the National Court, dismantled this network that had expanded into different layers of society. They uncovered the massive entry of products, which ended up in the Madrid industrial estate of Cobo Calleja, of which 90% entered illegally; how all that money was laundered back to China and for that they used people in Spain who had hidden money in tax havens and with the connivance of public officials for it.
All this was firmly directed by Ping and if something went wrong there was a heavy hand, beatings, physical violence, and threats. As an example: when they were arrested in February 2012, eight million euros in cash were found just in the offices.
Now, after 16 years of all the police and judicial work, the Prosecutor’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office have closed plea agreements with 64 of the accused and 9 charges have been withdrawn (including that of Ignacio Jordá, better known as Nacho Vidal).
The highest requested sentence, 36 years, for one of Gao Ping’s close collaborators and lieutenants, Lin Wei, has been reduced to six years and three months in prison, replaced by fines to avoid actual imprisonment. The conviction is for crimes of criminal organization, active bribery, threats, illegal detention, money laundering, and six offenses against the Public Treasury.
The National Court has already issued the plea agreement sentence, confirming all the activity of this large mafia network. However, there are still 33 accused who have decided not to settle, including Gao Ping himself, who faces 47 years in prison, and his wife Lizhen Yang, for whom the Prosecutor’s Office requests 33 years in prison. However, legal sources explain that there is no trial date yet but it is very likely that the hearing will not be in 2026.
The sentence, issued by the National Court on July 13, confirms that the criminal organization used undeclared money for other illicit activities such as making loans among members of the Chinese community at very high interest rates, with repayment guaranteed through intimidation.
Another part of that money, the ruling states, was used to purchase properties, such as vehicles and real estate, thus allowing the benefits obtained from the organization’s illicit activities to surface.
The mafia network expanded throughout the territory and other countries. A whole network was created to launder money with the help, among others, of a Catalan businessman, Rafael Pallardó, who also reached a plea agreement and managed to reduce the sentence request from 15 years to one and a half years. According to the sentence, the businessman frequently collected large amounts of money in Madrid from some of the investigated persons and physically transferred it to other places including Andorra, to the “BPA” (“Banca Privada de Andorra”).
It is through the Pallardó route that María José Jordá, alias Cote, is linked, who has also agreed to a sentence of one and a half years in prison. She collaborated with the Catalan businessman in sending capital outside the legally established channels, mediating with Andorran banking entities.
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Nacho Vidal’s sister had a romantic relationship with Pallardó. She was listed as a proxy of Vidal Productions, “which allowed her to issue fictitious invoices, supporting international transfers, to justify them.” According to the sentence, she participated in an activity of distributing cash, covering it through fictitious invoicing.
Jordá was the one making transfers from her brother’s accounts, from those of his wife, Francesca James, or from her own mother’s. “Ignacio Jordá was unaware that his sister was making these capital transfers outside the legally established channels and that she collaborated with Pallardó in that activity,” so the accusation against him has finally been withdrawn.
The case includes a conversation stating that the Pallardó route would be insufficient for the needs of moving money out of the investigated criminal organization, as they can move money from Spain to China worth one million euros weekly.
That is why another group called Chequian, directed from China, was used. From there, the money sent or transferred was withdrawn from current accounts, disguised as remittances from immigrants or bank transfers.
Additionally, the organization had links in other countries such as Portugal, France, Italy, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, places where money transports from Spain by the organization have been detected.
”The total amount of money deposited in cash in banking entities from 2009 to 2012 amounts to 60.4 million euros, money whose origin is linked to predicate offenses of smuggling and tax fraud. Of all that money deposited, a total of 36.9 million euros has been accounted for as finally sent abroad,” the sentence states.
To achieve all this, the organization had managed to corrupt officials including members of the State security forces. “The level of penetration of this organization in different layers of Spanish society facilitated obtaining privileged and favorable treatment from some members of the Spanish Administration,” it indicates. The case includes a document listing some contacts of the Chinese Government, who hold their positions both in their country of origin and at its Embassy in Spain.
And if something went wrong, then the organization had the “Shandong Group,” which was dedicated to collecting loans using violence, collecting debts for illegal immigration, stolen vehicles, etc. It has been confirmed how Gao Ping was responsible for administering “justice” himself, according to his own rules, a characteristic typical of a criminal organization.
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