The spanish police announced on Tuesday the arrest, after nine years on the run, of the most wanted woman in the United Kingdom, convicted of the laundering of more than 1,000 million pounds (more than 1,197 million euros) swindled from the treasury.
The fugitive, identified by British police as Sarah Panitzke, 47 years old, was arrested by the Civil Guard on Sunday when she was walking her dogs in Saint Barbaraprovince of Tarragona, according to a statement.
Panitzke had been wanted since 2013 for money laundering offenses as part of a gang that bought mobile phones abroad without paying value added tax (VAT), then resold them in the UK.
This criminal organization made profits of more than 1,000 million pounds (1,200 million euros, 1,300 million dollars).
“According to the British investigators, SP was the person in charge of laundering the profits of the organization through multiple companies that he owned in Spain, Andorra and Dubai,” the Civil Guard said.
“At a certain point, this organization sold more mobile phones in the United Kingdom than all legal stores together,” added the Spanish body.
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The woman was the only person from the criminal network who was free. In August 2013, the United Kingdom judged the main perpetrators of the plot, but Panitze did not appear before the authorities, thus beginning her flight, for which she was sentenced in absentia to 8 years in prison for her responsibility in the said organization.
After his flight from the United Kingdom, the main indications were that he could hide in Spain, given the family and academic ties he had with our country since his adolescence. In 2015 she was located in Olivella (Barcelona), where she was visited by her husband on weekends between great security measures, to supply the now detained woman with all the basic products, since she barely left the hiding place from her so as not to arouse suspicion.
Sensing the police presence, SP completely changes his appearance and escapes. Finally, in February of this year, information was obtained about their possible presence in the town of Santa Bárbara (Tarragona), a small town of about 4,000 inhabitants, and a permanent surveillance operation was established on the town that has lasted several weeks. to try to locate the fugitive.
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The arrested woman has been placed at the disposal of the Central Court of Instruction number 6 of the National High Court on guard duty, who has ordered her imprisonment pending resolution of the pertinent extradition procedure.
The investigation has been carried out since its inception by the Justice Fugitives Team of the Central Operational Unit and the Judicial Police Unit of the Catalonia Zone, with the support of the British HMRC.