The general director, María Gámez, appears in the Senate Interior Committee to explain the different initiatives of the Civil Guard for modernization, generation of public value and contribution to the Demographic Challenge

María Gámez: "The Civil Guard develops its work and its future plan on the right of everyone to receive a quality public service wherever they live"

The deployment of the Civil Guard in rural areas is a fundamental element in addressing the challenges posed by the depopulation of the territories

In more than 77% of Spanish municipalities, only the Civil Guard is present to guarantee public safety

The general director of the Civil Guard, María Gámez, appeared this afternoon at the Senate Interior Committee to explain the different initiatives for modernization, generation of public value and contribution to the Demographic Challenge.

María Gámez recalled that “the Demographic Challenge brings together different dimensions of the population, referring both to the structure of the pyramid, and to the location or living conditions of a person. For this reason, dealing with it encompasses different aspects such as depopulation, aging, the effects of the floating population, masculinization, territorial dispersion or migration ”.

The Civil Guard in Spain's Demographic Challenge

• The promotion of R + D + i projects, such as the use of drones to monitor these areas.
• The creation of a Project Coordination Office to design initiatives throughout the deployment –including the Demographic Challenge Spain– capable of attracting financing from European recovery funds.
• A pilot test is being carried out to expand the Prior Appointment system –currently operational for Arms and Explosives procedures- to the presentation of complaints at Civil Guard posts.
• New technological solutions are being studied and developed, such as Mobile Offices (in the style of those that have operated in high season on the Camino de Santiago) and the expansion of the SIGO Mobility application, which allows service patrols to access on-site and moment to information of interest. (The areas of Valencia, Murcia and much of Andalusia already have it, as well as the Albacete and Cáceres commanderies and the Majadahonda Company).
• Collaboration with local police is promoted, especially in the framework of the protection of victims of gender violence.

The Civil Guard and the FIIAPP present the project "CT Public Spaces" to prevent terrorist attacks in public spaces in Ghana, Kenya and Senegal

The general director of the Civil Guard, María Gámez, has presented the project together with the director of the FIIAPP, Ana Terrón

The objective is to prevent and reduce terrorist attacks and their effects on public spaces in these countries.

The Rural Action Unit of the Civil Guard (UAR) is participating in the training activities, which have already begun on the ground.

The Civil Guard and the FIIAPP presented the project "CT Public Spaces" this morning at the General Directorate of the Civil Guard in Madrid. Representatives of the delegations of Ghana, Kenya and Senegal attended the event.

The Civil Guard has experience in preventing terrorist attacks in public spaces that can help in other countries. The “CT Public Spaces” project is based on the mobilization of this knowledge and experience to other countries where security in events with a large influx of people is a challenge.

The general director of the Civil Guard has highlighted that the ‘CT Public Spaces’ project aims to prevent and reduce terrorist attacks and their effects in public spaces. It is something necessary, without a doubt, because many lives can be saved, in addition to gaining stability and security, fundamental premises to favor the development of any country. Public spaces can reflect both conflicts and coexistence, they are critical places and must be protected.

In this sense, María Gámez has highlighted that the germ of the project is found in the attacks suffered, especially since 2015, in public spaces, tourist and religious venues or critical infrastructures in Europe, Africa and even Asia. Given this, the Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs of the European Commission drew up an Action Plan to try to identify how the security of these specific points could be strengthened.

The general director has stated that ‘CT Public Spaces’ focuses on the training of personnel of the police forces of partner countries, such as Ghana, Kenya and Senegal. In this way, the Civil Guard, through this necessary initiative, shares its experiences, knowledge and skills.

We are proud to export and contribute the talent of the Rapid Action Group (GAR) and to contribute to the beneficiary states having more prepared, more capable and effective police forces. Because we work to add an extra security, without forgetting that, with the exchange of experiences, we all win; because by sharing, we also learn.

For its part, from the FIIAPP, the Spanish cooperation agency that mobilizes talent from Spanish public administrations, Anna Terrón, its director, has stressed that security is a prerequisite to any stabilization and inclusive development process. The development family is clear that the priority is that people can develop their daily lives in a dignified way. Sometimes, development and security actors work from different logics, but this exchange enriches us.

Natalie Pawels, Head of the Peace and Stability Unit of the European Commission, highlighted the importance of having the valuable experience of the Civil Guard and the important role of the FIIAPP. We are very proud to have representatives from the Sahel, the Gulf of Guinea and the Horn of Africa here today in a multilateral engagement in the fight against terrorism, he added.

Finally, the general director of the Civil Guard, has concluded by underlining that the Civil Guard, once the project is completed, will have contributed to the training of a minimum of 100 agents for each partner country through more than thirty activities. So far, 90 students have participated in this initiative here, in Spain, and 94 in their respective countries.

Visit to the UAR headquarters in Logroño

It is planned to make a visit tomorrow, Thursday, to the Rural Action Unit of the Civil Guard at its headquarters in Logroño, where activities on the ground have already begun with specific training in the protection of public spaces for personnel of the police forces of the countries. partners. In these training courses, developed in Spain and in the three African countries, there is the experience of specialists from the Rural Action Unit (UAR) of the Civil Guard and the High Risk Safety Network of the European Union (EU- HRSN).

So far this year, training in command and control techniques, tactical patrol, precision shooters, intervention dogs or risk analysis methods, among others, have been carried out in Logroño for professionals from institutions such as the Ghana Police Service, the Senegalese National Gendarmerie or the National Police Service-Kenya. These professionals replicate these trainings in their countries with the support of the Civil Guard and the EU-HRSN personnel.

By the end of 2021, the project will have 98 trainers trained in Logroño and 94 professionals trained in their countries. For this, Civil Guard personnel have already traveled to the three partner countries to carry out the training together with the country's specialists.

About FIIAPP

The International and Ibero-American Foundation for Public Administration and Policies (FIIAPP) is an institution committed to global problems and challenges, which understands international cooperation as an instrument to face them jointly. As a foundation of the state public sector, we promote, guide and manage the participation of public administrations in international cooperation projects. Present in more than 100 countries, we strengthen public systems by improving their structures, reviewing regulatory and policy frameworks, and training public officials and managers.

Identified one of the biggest cryptocurrency scammers established in Spain and searched by INTERPOL since 2015

In his latest scam, after the creation of a new virtual currency under the “Holdlife” token, he stole more than half a million euros from hundreds of people affected

At first, the collaboration of many of these people in the channels opened by the Civil Guard to pursue this criminal phenomenon, has been decisive to know the volume of this scam

The Department Against Cybercrime of UCO, formerly known as the Department of Telematic Crimes, makes the email account ciberestafas@guardiacivil.org available to potential victims of this scam as a point of contact.

The Civil Guard, through its Department Against Cybercrime of the Central Operational Unit, has carried out what has been called Operation Hodlife, in which one of the largest known cryptocurrency cyber crooks has been arrested in Latvia, escaping from the international justice and sought by international law enforcement agencies since 2015.

Launch of a new cryptocurrency; "HODLIFE, The Unicorn Token"

Thanks to the volume of information provided by affected people in the citizen communication channels enabled by the Civil Guard for this purpose, it was possible to follow the trail of the launch, or "airdrop", of a new virtual currency, a project called by its creators as "HODLIFE, The Unicorn Token ”, who, to attract investment of funds, promised their“ hodlers ”, or users who invest in cryptocurrency, the distribution among all of them of part of the commissions of the operations that were carried out in this new platform.

In this way, the now detained man took control of cryptocurrencies worth more than € 500,000, leaving behind more than a thousand affected.

For the dissemination of this project, the detainee used the most common channels in current digital communication, through aggressive advertising campaigns on Twitter profiles, Telegram and on a website created expressly, quickly attracting a large community of users who, Thanks to the messages launched from these platforms, they were being duped into depositing their cryptocurrencies in this new line of business.

To give these campaigns greater credibility, the creator of HODLIFE obtained the services of an actor, who recorded promotional videos of the project posing as the creator of the project.

In these videos, the actor and false creator, transmitted messages of thanks to the entire new community of followers, at the same time that he kept them abreast of the most relevant news, achievements and new implementations in the mechanics of the project.

"Rug pull" or "pull the rug". Start of the investigation

Finally, at the end of last June, all investors who had invested their cryptocurrencies in HODLIFE could see how they had been transferred to other portfolios, leaving no trace of their investments, realizing at that moment that they had been scammed.

This type of scam is commonly known as “rug pull” or “throwing the carpet”, and it consists of the developers of a project abandoning it and fleeing with the investors' money.

Thus initiated the investigation by the Department Against Cybercrime of UCO, the investigators were able to slowly trace the route that the stolen funds followed, despite the fact that the author of the fraud used various measures to erase it, such as the change of currency of the cryptocurrencies, transfers to different networks of the blockchain, or the use of platforms that offer services of “mixing” or mixing crypto assets with those of other users, thus making it difficult to identify the ownership of each of the portfolios in the that the funds are deposited.

In this exhaustive analysis of the traceability of digital wallets associated with HODLIFE, the agents were able to corroborate the links with another wallet whose ownership fell to AT, a 29-year-old Lithuanian citizen who had been known to have stayed in our country for long periods of time since 2020.

In the same way, it was found that most of the funds in that wallet had their origin in the same “mixing” platforms that were used to divert the cryptocurrencies from HODLIFE. All these income were prior to the scam object of this investigation, amounting to € 600,000, showing that this person made the scam his way of life.

Mansions of € 1000 per day for rent

In parallel, the investigation focused on being able to define the exact location from where the scammer was carrying out all his operations, being able to specify after the study and analysis of different internet connections, that this individual was acting from Spain, specifically from a one of the most exclusive areas of the Costa del Sol.

By following the trail of this person, the agents were able to verify the high standard of living that he and his companions led, residing in luxury villas with rents exceeding one thousand euros a day or renting high-end cars of the most exclusive brands, as well as spending huge amounts of money in designer clothing stores and in the most prominent restaurants on the Costa del Sol.

It was also decisive for the agents to know how they alternated residence in the aforementioned villas, with others in hotels, being able to verify that it was in the latter where they used their internet connections to connect to different platforms for buying and selling cryptocurrencies and transferring funds stolen from wallets you own.

False documentation and arrest warrant and extradition by the US

Focusing the investigation on both the now detained and his closest environment, the agents were able to confirm that in reality this individual was not of Lithuanian origin but Latvian and that he has been carrying false personal documentation for several years.

Once identified without any doubt, the Civil Guard activated all international police cooperation mechanisms, thus being able to learn about the scammer's journey through different countries, renting vehicles and mansions in all of them, even owning credit cards and bank accounts with false ownership.

It has also been possible to specify that this person had a search, arrest and extradition order ordered by the United States in 2015 motivated by the commission of fraud.

For more information, you can contact the Press Office of the Central Operational Unit (U.C.O.), telephone 91.503.13.27.

Grande-Marlaska congratulates the Traffic School of the Civil Guard in Mérida for its 25th anniversary

The Minister of the Interior has presided, together with the president of the Junta de Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández Vara, the celebration events, which were also attended by the Government delegate in Extremadura, Yolanda García; the general director of the Civil Guard, María Gámez; the undersecretary of the Interior, Isabel Goicoechea; and the Director General of Traffic, Pere Navarro, among other authorities

After discovering a commemorative plaque on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the school, attendees have been able to witness an exhibition of driving two and four-wheelers and a road safety road show organized by the Mérida City Council

"For the Ministry of the Interior it is a privilege to have the Civil Guard Traffic Group as a support element committed to mobility and road safety." Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska visited the Civil Guard Traffic School in Mérida (Badajoz) this Monday and witnessed the commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the creation of the center together with the president of the Extremadura Board, Guillermo Fernández Rod.

The event was also attended by the Government delegate in Extremadura, Yolanda García; the general director of the Civil Guard, María Gámez; the Undersecretary of the Interior, Isabel Goicoechea, and the General Director of Traffic, Pere Navarro, among other authorities.

In his speech, the Interior Minister had a memory for the members of the Civil Guard Traffic Group killed in the act of service or victims of terrorism, and predicted that the Traffic School, "which is already a pioneer in the design of university courses related to traffic, road safety, accident investigation and reconstruction, road transport and driving, it will soon be considered a true faculty of traffic and road safety ”thanks to its link to the university center of the corps .

Grande-Marlaska has uncovered a plaque commemorating the anniversary. Afterwards, he has witnessed a media exhibition and a presentation of the school by its director, Colonel José Lope Galiana, as well as an exhibition of driving motorcycles and four-wheelers.

Finally, the Mérida City Council has organized and sponsored a road-show to raise awareness among youth of the risks of reckless driving and the suffering caused by traffic accidents. This activity has been attended by students from the different courses that are being developed at the school, as well as a small representation of students from an institute in the city.

The Traffic School and Mérida

The first courses dedicated to traffic services were held in 1959 in Madrid, prior to the founding of the Traffic Association on August 26 of that year with the mission of monitoring, regulating, assisting and controlling traffic and transport, thus as well as to guarantee the safety of the circulation in the interurban roads. Since this year, and until 1961, a total of 17 courses were held in different locations: El Escorial, Colmenar Viejo, Valdemoro and Madrid.

As of 1962, the courses take place at the Mobile Command and Automobile Park and the practical driving classes at Venta la Rubia in Campamento (Madrid). Between 1986 and 1996, the Traffic School was established in the premises of the College of Young Guards of Valdemoro (Madrid).

Since January 1, 1996, the Traffic School was located in the Mérida dependencies, inaugurated by the Kings on January 31 of that same year. The school depends, organically and functionally, on the Headquarters of the Traffic Association; technically, from the Civil Guard Teaching Headquarters, and, in collaboration for teaching purposes, from the General Directorate of Traffic.

In addition to the courses dedicated to traffic and transportation, specialty courses have also been held among other national and foreign police forces with competencies in traffic.

Since its inauguration in 1996, almost 13,000 students have passed through the Mérida Traffic School. In 2021 there are a total of 507 students taking the different courses taught at the center:

• Specialization: motorcyclist courses, reports and management.
• Change of modality: courses for crowded motorists and vice versa.
• Basic training: courses in cinemometers, GIAT, COTA.
• Improvement: transportation courses, specific for drug detection and university expert course on road accident reconstruction.