The National Court investigates a Digital District company for smuggling prohibited goods exported to Russia through Turkey.

Image of Distrito Digital in the port of Alicante, where the investigated company is based. / Jose Navarro

Closed 11 OCT 2025 06:01 Updated Oct 11, 2025 10:10

The National Court has agreed this week to release without bail a couple who had been in prison since last June for their alleged involvement in a smuggling plot to send dual-use material to Russia – civilian and military – and prohibited goods, evading customs controls and using a company with headquarters in Alicante’s Digital District as a front.

The two defendants, a man and a woman born in Georgia and who also have Russian passports, left the prisons of the community of Madrid where they were being held on Thursday after the National Court accepted the request for freedom of their defense, exercised by the lawyers Francisco Miguel Galiana Botella, Alejandro Murcia and Victoria Yarmoliuk. The release order issued by the central court of Instruction number 2 of the National Court establishes as precautionary measures that both investigated will not be able to leave the country and must appear once a week in court.

The Russian-Georgian couple, now released from prison, was arrested last June upon arrival at Valencia airport. The arrests were part of an operation carried out by the National Police, the Tax Agency and the National Intelligence Centre (CNI). In addition to the couple, a man of Uruguayan origin was arrested, considered to be a front man for the plot and who has addresses in El Campello and San Vicente del Raspeig. This man has a five percent stake in the Alicante company investigated by the National Court, while the remaining 95% is in the name of one of those released this week.

Address in Distrito Digital

The company under investigation, which according to the Police reported in June had a headquarters in San Vicente del Raspeig that was registered, is, however, officially registered with an address in the Digital District of Alicante, the hub of technology companies promoted by the Generalitat.

Its corporate purpose is the “intermediation of the trade in machinery, industrial equipment, boats and aircraft”. According to the police, those under investigation used this commercial company as a shell company to mask the shipment of dual-use material to the Russian Federation, in violation of the prohibitions in force. To do this, they used a triangulation scheme, using at least four Turkish companies to hide the final destination of the material.

The objective was the re-export of the machinery from Turkey to the Russian Federation, thus circumventing customs control derived from the sanctions imposed by the European Union due to the war in Ukraine, as well as the regulations on the control of foreign trade in defence and dual-use material provided for in both national and European legislation.  as stated in the research.

The dual-use machinery exported were automated machine tools that can make complex parts. They are mainly used in the series manufacturing industry, such as the automotive metallurgical industry, the aerospace industry or also in the military industry. They could be used to produce housings, shafts, supports, precision mechanisms or aerodynamic components that fit into defence or aerospace sectors, such as drones, rockets or guidance systems.

The investigation into the Alicante-based company has revealed that it always followed the same operational pattern. First, it received funds from companies established in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Kyrgyzstan, without there being in most cases a sale that justified these transfers of funds. Subsequently, it bought the machinery from its European suppliers, but did not always declare that purchase and then exported it to Turkey, but in reality it was re-exported to Russia.

Those involved also falsified the documentation and labelling of the products, in order to hide the true nature of the material included in the embargo on Russia.

Hundreds of thousands of euros

In this operation, the agents have verified the export of different machinery subject to embargo worth hundreds of thousands of euros. Only one of the machines was valued at almost 400,000 euros. The final recipient of the machinery was a Russian company dedicated to the aerospace industry.