A 39-year-old man in Arrasate (Gipuzkoa) was arrested last week for scamming several Colombian boys. He pretends to be an agent of footballers and, in exchange for money, is committed to turning several young Colombians into footballers in the Spanish State. At least 25 people have been scammed, and some of them are minors.

The scammer has encouraged young people to move from Colombia to the Basque Country. Once migrated, he has accumulated them in several houses in Arrasate. In some cases, it forces to live together between ten and twelve people subcarding rooms. These apartments are rented by the detainee and his partner, with a minimum of four houses.

To deceive the young, the detainee has suffered a number of accomplices. Her partner is investigated and a Colombian person. He is apparently a football coach who has helped the mondragonese identify and contact Colombian footballers to deceive. They seem to have targeted young people eager to start their professional career as footballers.

The scammers ask the victims for money, committing themselves to the fact that some football team in the Basque Country could be interested in them and that they would get some proof to be able to play on a team. They say that the scammers gave orders to the young people to make the payments and carry out the formalities for them to move to the Basque Country. They asked their victims for amounts of money by arguing "representation expenses, maintenance and accommodation, letters of invitation", etc.

Although they have not realised the details, it appears that this fraud has affected three football teams in the Basque Country: Arrasate, Aretxabaleta (Gipuzkoa) and Sporting Lutxana (Barakaldo, Bizkaia).

They say that through social media scammers have made a great deal of publicity for their fake project. To do so, they have presented the trick as an "agency" in which young Colombians and Mexicans work to fulfill their "dream of playing football in Spain".