Catalan on FBI most wanted list over North Korea links arrested in Madrid 

Spanish police arrested a Catalan businessman in Madrid on Friday, wanted by the FBI over his links to North Korea. 

Alejandro Cao de Benós, North Korea's Special Delegate of the Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, according to his profile on X (formerly Twitter), was accused by US authorities in May 2022 of "conspiring to violate United States sanctions on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea by working with a US citizen to illegally provide cryptocurrency and blockchain technology services to the DPRK." 

Cao de Benós was released later on Friday, posting on X: "There is no extradition." 

He also stated that the US accusation, "in addition to being false, does not exist in Spain," because it is an order from former president Donald Trump. 

Cao de Benós also thanked people who had sent him messages and thanked the police for their "good treatment and personal support." 

Spanish police have explained that they believe Cao de Benós could face a sentence of twenty years in prison. In mid-October, they received information from Interpol indicating that he was in Spain.  

Operations carried out by the police's Fugitive Locating Group confirmed the North Korean special delegate was present in Catalonia, and that he could be using false documentation. 

Investigators discovered that he was traveling by train from Barcelona to Madrid and he was arrested on arrival at Madrid's Atocha station. 

Cao de Benós was released on bail after the Prosecutor's Office did not request that he remain in jail. 

A source from the Prosecutor's Office indicated that he has been released because he has Spanish nationality, roots in Spain, and because it is "doubtful" that the crime for which he is being prosecuted in the US is also an offence in European or Spanish legislation.