Spain busts firm sending chemicals to Russia evading sanctions, arrests four

Spanish authorities on Tuesday said they had arrested four people suspected of orchestrating a sanctions-busting commercial network after intercepting 13 tonnes of chemical products bound for Russia.

The investigation began in 2022 after Western countries imposed waves of sanctions on Russia to prevent it from acquiring equipment and technologies for its invasion of Ukraine.

Police and customs officials impounded the chemical products found in a container in the port of Barcelona, Spanish national police said in a statement.

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A police spokeswoman told AFP the four suspects were arrested in the northeastern Catalonia region on October 8 and have appeared before an investigating judge.

Spanish authorities had in initial findings detected a company managed by "citizens of Russian origin" who had developed a network to illegally supply chemical products to Russia, the statement said.

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The firm sent the goods to its Moscow-based subsidiary through a series of shadow companies in countries such as Armenia or Kyrgyzstan, with the deliveries reaching Russia by land, police added.

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