Spanish police said Friday they had detained 41 people on charges of laundering money on behalf of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and drug cartels in the Latin American country, dpa reported.
The 41 suspects were held in several Spanish provinces. Police said they searched 27 locations.
The detainees were suspected of laundering up to 20 million euros (27 million dollars).
Colombian drug cartels smuggled cocaine to Spain, the daily El Pais reported. The earnings from the drug sales were then sent to Colombia and Ecuador by immigrants pretending to make small bank transfers to their family members, according to the daily.
The arrests were made in cooperation with Colombian and Ecuadorian police. They followed that of a woman believed to be a FARC representative in Spain in 2008. She was released on bail.
FARC, which has battled the Colombian government for 46 years, gets a large part of its income from drug trafficking.