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At night I picked up the microphone karaokes and party rooms in Girona and delighted the Moroccan community with traditional songs from his country. By day, he ran the organization that, according to the police, had been scamming unmarried couples among irregular immigrants for more than two years, whom he They charged 12,000 eurosand Spaniards who were willing to register and join them in exchange for 8,000 euros.
Investigators believe that Redouane Tounzi, ‘Cheb Redouane’ on YouTube, he did not do musical gigs as a cover, to hide his real modus vivendi, but rather he took advantage of the fact that his performances had acquired a certain popularity among the Moroccan community settled in Catalonia to “attract” more clients for its network.
The Moroccan Bertín Osborne
“He had made contacts in a community that is very large, especially in the province of Girona, where he had a certain reputation and everyone knew him. His ‘business’ It worked by word of mouththe word had spread among irregular immigrants and among Spaniards in economic difficulties willing to be part of the fraud,” sources familiar with the investigation point out to this investigation and events channel.
The leader of the plot “wanted to become the Moroccan Bertín Osborne.” A video clip recorded in the streets of Barcelona and that the man uploaded to his social networks helped the police to identify him
The singer and influencer, 47 years old and father of two children, who spread videos of his concerts on social networks (one of them, a video clip recorded in the streets of Barcelonahelped the police to identify him), had settled in an apartment in Figueras with his girlfriend, also Moroccan. They led a discreet life, beyond the fact that Cheb Redouane “liked to show off and arouse admiration as a singer, especially among women, He wanted to become the Moroccan Bertín Osborne“, the sources consulted point out to this medium.
BMW and high-end cars
Beyond that, the couple lived a normal life: “everything normal it can be to live in a good apartment without paying rent or mortgage, constantly changing cars and going out to parties and nightclubs, all of this.” no known legal employment“, they add. In the eight months that he was under police surveillance, Tounzi “bought and sold several high-end carsfrom brands like BMW”.
Both the Moroccan influencer and his girlfriend have been detained along with nine other people in Operation Triángulo of the National Police after an eight-month investigation by the General Commissariat of Immigration and Borders. At that time, according to the investigations, the organization led by Tounzi managed to enroll at least 77 young couples (to attract less attention) fraudulently in different registries in Catalonia, for which he would have charged more than one million euros.
France and Belgium
But Tounzi’s plot did not act like other illegal immigration networks. The man had innovated, according to the police. Cheb Redouane had his network of Moroccan clients outside Spain, in France and Belgium. Immigrants who lived in those countries and wanted to regularize their situation came to our country, registered as a de facto couple with a Spanish man or woman, with the help of Tounzi, and they returned home with the papers in order; that’s how it was harder for fraud to be discovered.
Safety floors
The organization took care of everything: once they had paid the 12,000 euros that they demanded, one of Tounzi’s drivers was going to pick them up and take them to Figueras, where the plot had several safety floors. Once there, the Moroccans had to pay 50 euros a day for living in overcrowded conditions, according to the police. They hid the time necessary to complete the necessary procedures to legally join a Spanish citizen who, Due to his precarious economic situation, he agreed to participate in the deception in exchange for pocketing 8,000 euros.
The women of the organization They were responsible for accompanying them to all the appointments they had with the Administration and telling them what they had to say and do. Although Tounzi himself also attended many of these procedures and he was in charge of dealing with clients himself, according to the sources consulted.
After being brought to justice, the leader of the plot was released, as this media has learned. The eleven arrested are accused of crimes of membership in a criminal group, favoring illegal immigration and document falsification. Until his arrest, Tounzi had a record of crimes of gender violence, violation of sentence, threats and injuries. Now, justice will decide whether, as the police investigation indicates, he also amassed a small fortune by orchestrating false domestic partnerships.
