Zoom
Crime Malaga travel agency owner swindles customers to fund fake lover in LebanonPolice dismantle criminal network after Florín Viajes boss falls victim to romance scam and funnels €100,000 of clients' money abroad
Tuesday, 10 February 2026, 17:25
A travel agency owner in Málaga has allegedly swindled more than 50 groups of travellers - including families, friends, and couples - out of more than €100,000, only to send the proceeds to a "fake lover" in Lebanon.
The woman, who ran the Florín Viajes agency, was reportedly a victim of a sophisticated "romance scam" herself.
The sudden closure of her branches triggered a wave of police reports from distraught customers who had already paid for their holidays but were left with nothing.
The complaints of her customers led to a large National Police investigation that discovered the double scam. The police have not only arrested the owner of the travel agency, but also 11 members of the network that scammed her and asked her to send money to a made-up soldier from Lebanon.
Start of the investigation
In 2024, Florín customers reported that the travel agency had suddenly shut down. They had already booked and paid for their holidays.
This led to the arrest of five people linked to the business, including the owner.
The investigation continued with the aim of tracing the money that had been transferred to different accounts. After analysing the bank accounts of the main suspect and her other enterprises, the police established that she had been the victim of a romance scam.
The online romance scam ring would send the proceeds to various bank accounts, most of them located in third countries, and invest in cryptocurrencies.
The large police investigation led to the arrest of five people in Malaga province, one in Seville, one in Valladolid, two in Lleida and two in Barcelona.
Among the detainees were the main recipient of the money - a woman who had also once been the victim of a romance scam only to later become a 'bank mule' - and the administrator of a computer shop used for money-laundering purposes.
The police also carried out several house searches in the aforementioned provinces, where they seized more than 56,000 euros in cash and more than 17,400 dollars in cryptocurrencies and blocked numerous properties and vehicles. The bank accounts in third countries were located in Belgium and Lithuania.