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(S//SI) NSA-Spanish Collaboration Nabs Crime Figures
FROM:
SIGINT Liaison Officer Madrid (DP109)
Run Date: 09/19/2006
(S//SI) Since February 2006, NSA has had a DNI-approved relationship with the Spanish
National Intelligence Center (CNI) on Organized Crime. Exploration in this area began more than
a year prior to the approval, and focused on Ukrainian and Russian crime figures with ties to
Spain. This exchange has included lead names and numbers, in both directions, and background
information about targets of mutual interest, particularly travel and location information. When
this collaboration began, nobody could imagine the results achieved so far!
(S//SI) Spanish National Intelligence Center (CNI)
(S//SI) The feedback from CNI highlights their excellent use of the leads provided and the
exemplary collaboration with national law enforcement agencies to secure the arrest or further
develop information on targets brought to their attention through NSA reporting or lead
information. Additionally, these law enforcement successes have raised public attention to this
issue and CNI expects the national priority of this target to increase in the near term.
(S//SI) The CNI recently informed NSA of the following achievements, directly resulting from the
exchange with NSA:
(TS//SI) One of the most successful events resulted from information provided by NSA on
Zakhar Kalachov in May 2006. NSA provided background reporting that Kalachov often
traveled to his residence in Dubai, UAE. With this information, along with information
from various CNI HUMINT sources indicating he would be in a Middle Eastern country for
a meeting the first week of May, CNI was able to confirm Kalachov's location, facilitating
his arrest. Kalachov is currently in prison in Spain , without bail, waiting for his court
hearing. According to CNI, this arrest was the result of over a year's intelligence work
and has resulted in the recovery of over 500 million Euros in property and cash.
(TS//SI) Other information provided by NSA, on Oleg Vorontsov, allowed CNI to identify
him as a priority-two target. Data obtained from the arrest of Kalashov and NSA has
raised the profile of this target considerably and both organizations have agreed to
exchange information on this individual as it relates to his activites in Spain. Both the
CNI and Spanish law- enforcement agencies (LEAs) are focusing attention on
Vorontsov and expect that an operation will be mounted against him soon.
(S//SI) CNI also reported NSA's assistance on a range of crime targets provided critical
information that contributed to arrests of Russian organized crime figures in Spain
during Operations Red Marble and Wasp. CNI noted the information provided by NSA
"gave CNI new investigative leads. This work, in turn, allowed Spanish law enforcement
agencies to gather enough evidence to request judicial authorities to place some
individuals under custody."
(S//SI) Some leads from NSA have opened entirely new lines of investigation for the
CNI. Information provided on a company in Spain, Vera Metalurgica, linked to Russian
crime bosses, has focused CNI's attention on this business and made it the top-priority
money laundering/crime target in Spain. Additional leads, later developed by CNI, are
being shared with Spanish LEAs and will most likely lead to a money laundering operation
against this company, among others.
(S//SI) Other targets the two services have agreed to work against are Mikail Gluschenko,
"Batyr from Spain," and various companies associated with other targets of mutual interest.
(U//FOUO) This article is reprinted from the Foreign Affairs Digest , July-August edition.
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108