MADRID - Spanish authorities have broken up an international money laundering network worth 250 million euros (337 million dollars) and arrested 41 people, officials said Saturday.
Among those arrested in the swoop, involving Interpol and Europol, were people from France, Finland, Morocco, Russia, Spain and Ukraine, among them several lawyers, the interior ministry said in a statement.
The interior ministry said the money laundering operation involved capital and real estate dealings by several organised crime groups centred on the Costa del Sol.
The arrests were first announced late Friday by Spanish anti-corruption police, who said people had been detained around Marbella.
Large sums of money were believed to have been diverted from the Russian oil giant Yukos to a Dutch company and then to one of its Spanish branches, the ministry statement said.
Russian authorities had assisted Spanish police in their investigations, it said.
A number of bank accounts were frozen and two private planes, a boat and 42 luxury cars were impounded during the police operation.
The ministry said there could be further arrests.
03/12/2005 19:21 GMT