The Judiciary Police (PJ) announced this Monday that it has identified 296 “money mules” and nine fundraisers in Portugal, in a European operation to combat this crime of money laundering.

The PJ referred, in a statement, that it participated, between 15 and 30 November, in the ‘European Money Mule Action’ (EMMA) operation, in which 8,755 “mules of [transporte] of money” and in which “precautionary measures” avoided a total loss of 17.5 million euros.

The EMMA operation, in which the PJ worked with Europol’s European Center against Cybercrime, resulted in the overall arrest of 2,469 suspects.

In Portugal, in addition to the identification of 296 people classified as “money mules”, nine other people were also identified as fundraisers of “mules”, 64 people were questioned and constituted defendants and 349 bank accounts transmitted to illicit transactions were identified.

90 treatments were also started in Portugal and 262 victims of this crime were identified, with a property loss of more than 4.5 million euros, advances the PJ.

The EMMA operation ran for the eighth consecutive year and involved a total of 25 countries, under the theme ‘DontBeaMule’ (Don’t Be A Mule).

This type of campaign aims to raise awareness among the general public that ‘money mules’ are people recruited by criminal organizations to raise money or illicit transfers of funds, becoming also actors and perpetrators of crimes.