Gennadios Petrov, the alleged head of the Tambovskaya-Malyshevkaya gang in Spain

Gennadios Petrov, the alleged head of the Russian mafia in Spain.Petrov is said to head the Tambovskaya-Malyshevkaya gang from the sunny climes of Calvi, one of the most exclusive villages in Majorca. He counted among his neighbours Pilar de Borbón, the sister of King Juan Carlos of Spain.Accustomed to handing out tips of €500 (£393) and not looking at the price tag when buying designer jackets, Petrov lived surrounded by tight security. But the peace at his €20m mansion was rudely interrupted when the Spanish police came knocking on Friday.In a major operation, codenamed Troika, 20 alleged members of the organised crime organisation said to have been led by Petrov were arrested in Majorca, Málaga, Alicante, Valencia and Madrid. Police seized 23 luxury cars including Bentleys and Ferraris and €200,000 in cash.The Dalí painting, signed by the Surrealist master and dated 1949, was found at a luxury mansion in Valencia linked to Petrov. More than 100 bank accounts containing a reported €14m were also frozen.Spain’s leading anti-terrorist judge, Baltasar Garzón, who tried to prosecute former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, charged Petrov and 17 others with a variety of offences including money-laundering, murder, extortion, drug dealing, illicit association, falsification of documents and tax fraud. They will appear before a maximum security court in Madrid today.The gang, said to be one of the most brutal in Russia, allegedly set up a web of front companies in Spain to launder millions in illegal property deals gained from criminal activities in Russia and the former Soviet states.After the raids, which involved 300 police, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the interior minister, said: “This is the largest crackdown on organised crime in Europe.”The operation was carried out with the help of German, US and Russian police.Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Russian mafia has gained ground in Spain, exploiting lax property laws and limited police resources to launder millions in property deals through bogus firms and into tax havens such as Gibraltar. Petrov, who is in his 50s, arrived in Spain in the early 90s, and allegedly used cash from the former KGB and communist party to buy a luxury hotel in Majorca.Operation Troika is the latest stage of an ongoing investigation into the Russian mafia in Spain, which began in 2005 with the arrest of 28 suspects.