SUSPECTED Russian mafia bosses have been arrested in the biggest operation against money laundering in Europe.

Spanish police detained 28 leading gang members believed to have been involved in an operation to launder money through coastal tourist resorts that are popular with Britons buying villas there.

Scotland Yard detectives joined seven other international forces in tracing the gangsters’ vast property network stretching along the Mediterranean coast. It was too early to say what will happen to any Britons who bought properties without realising they were built with laundered money.

Officers said that it could take months to unravel the mafia’s paper trail. Some Britons will face a protracted legal battle to retain their properties.

Especially vulnerable are those who have not used an independent lawyer to ensure that their title deeds — or escritura — are in order with the local property registry office. This shows if the property was constructed with the requisite planning permission.

Numerous properties have been seized by police while others belonging to foreign buyers face demolition after it was discovered that gangsters bribed local councillors to build them.

The regional government in Andalusia says that it will start demolition of 2,000 properties built illegally on or near the Costa del Sol. Work has already begun at Cártama, near Málaga, where many Britons have bought plots from British agents who have since disappeared. At La Manga, the popular resort along the coast in Murcia, the regional courts have stopped work on the Puerto Mayor project for 818 villas and holiday apartments.

Of those in custody, 22 are from the former Soviet Union and all are said to hold the position of vor v zakone, Russian for a top-ranking mafia boss. They allegedly moved the headquarters of their crime empires to the costas, where they did little to hide their lavish lifestyles.

Undercover agents involved in the sting, known as Operation Wasp, also seized art treasures, jewellery, cash, luxury cars and guns in their weekend raids across 11 regions.

The arrests at the weekend could prove timely as they come before the G8 summit in Gleneagles, where security chiefs are due to discuss continuing efforts to trace the illicit funds of terrorists and drug barons.

There was growing international pressure on Spain to clean up some of its most fashionable resorts. The Interior Ministry claimed last night: “Because of the results, the extent of the operation, the quality and importance of the people arrested and its international repercussions, the operation can be considered the biggest blow to date against international organised crime in Europe.”

More than 400 agents took part in Operation Wasp, which has frozen 800 bank accounts and impounded nearly 50 properties and acres of land earmarked for development.

The gangs allegedly funnelled cash from extortion, drugs and prostitution in Russia into fraudulent commercial and financial networks, including their property portfolios.

Interpol estimates that the Spanish costas are home to 18,000 foreign criminals of 70 nationalities.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Milk: do we need a dairy godmother?
• DIY: the women doing it for themselves
• First double portrait of Princes unveiled