Spanish police arrested 44 people last week on suspicion of being involved in a scam which stole thousands of euros specifically from company bosses.
While 43 of the arrests were made in Spain, one man was arrested in the UK close to an airport where the gang allegedly kept large sums of cash before sending it on to Nigeria.
Seven of the arrests were of people involved in running an internet cafe in the Madrid region. They are suspected of organising weekly transfers of cash to Nigeria by plane.
"€135,000 was discovered at Madrid airport hidden in rubbish bags and concealed among underwear in a suitcase destined to travel in the hold of the aircraft," police said in a statement.
The authorities have not revealed the nationalities of those arrested.
The con allegedly involved sending emails to senior executives designed to trick them into revealing personal banking information. After that it was not difficult for the swindlers to access the person’s bank account and make off with the funds.
The investigation began at the end of 2014 after a Pakistani citizen reported that his bank account had been hacked and €34,000 had been taken from it.
The largest single sum reported lost to the fraud was €1.8 million.
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