According to a recent investigative report published by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a Russian-Spanish wine exporter whose family runs a chic tapas bar is under investigation for shipping sanctioned chemicals to Russia, including diethylamine, a chemical involved in the manufacturing of the nerve agent VX. Reporters found she also owns a chemical company in Russia whose clients have included major state scientific agencies known for developing chemical weapons.

According to OCCRP, Cavina Vinoteca, a slick wine bar in Barcelona’s fashionable Poblenou neighborhood, has drawn rave reviews online since it opened its doors last year.

The restaurant is one of several gastronomic ventures run by the Oleinikova family, led by matriarch Maria, who was born in Russia but is now a Spanish citizen. Together with her son and daughter, she also runs a Spanish company that exports wine, beer, cider and liqueurs to Russia.

But OCCRP and partners have learned that this company did business beyond just beverages — it was also shipping chemicals to Russia in possible violation of European Union sanctions imposed following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Last year, Maria and her children Irina and Vyacheslav were arrested in a Spanish police raid dubbed “Operacion Probirka” — or “Operation Test Tube” — in which 13,000 kilograms of chemicals were seized at the Port of Barcelona.

Operation Test Tube was part of a Spanish investigation into the illegal supply of chemicals to Russia, Spain’s Interior Ministry said in a statement at the time, but since then the government has provided almost no details about the case. Although the statement referred to a Russian company that was importing the chemicals, police did not publicly name it or provide details of the shipments.

A Spanish police source seeking anonymity, involved in the investigation told OCCRP, authorities suspect Oleinikova was an “intermediary” who arranged the shipments.

But drawing on Russian import data, reporters found that Oleinikova doesn’t just operate in Spain — she also majority-owns a Russian chemical company called Catrosa Reactiv that received at least 36 shipments of sanctioned chemicals from Spain between 2022 and 2024 — including one that came directly from Complexe Sancu, the Spanish wine-and-beer export company run by Oleinkova and her children

Most of the other shipments were made by a Spanish company called Scharlab S.L., which is headquartered in Barcelona with subsidiaries in Italy and the Philippines, import data shows. Scharlab is majority-owned by Werner Scharlau, a German living in Spain who was among those arrested in February.

On its website, Catrosa Reactiv — which was founded in 2006 and taken over by Oleinikova’s husband two years later — says that it “successfully operates in the Russian chemical reagents market” and supplies products to laboratories and raw materials to industry. The Russian company register shows that Oleinikova, who has a background in academic scientific research, became the company’s majority shareholder in 2015 and still holds a controlling stake in the firm.

The report further stated, It is not known how the chemicals imported from Spain to Catrosa Reactiv were ultimately used. However, leaked transaction data obtained by reporters showed Catrosa Reactiv’s clients in Russia since 2022 have included at least six sanctioned entities linked to weapons production, the defense sector, and the Russian military.

They included the State Scientific Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology, also known as GosNIIOKhT, which has been sanctioned by the EU and US for its involvement in the development and production of chemical weapons including the toxic nerve agent Novichok, which has been used by Russian operatives for stealth assassinations abroad.

Since 2022, Catrosa Reactiv has also received payments from:

• The All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics, an agency that developed weapons in the Soviet era, including the first Soviet atomic bomb, before shifting towards building and managing Russia’s most advanced supercomputers.

• The Scientific Research Institute of Applied Acoustics, which was sanctioned by the US for allegedly “carrying out research and development of military products”. The US also said it had been “involved in the procurement and inventory of chemicals that could be used in the production of chemical weapons agents”.

• Explosives manufacturer SKTB Technolog, a contractor for the Russian Ministry of Defense

• The 18th Central Research Institute, known as Military Unit 11135, which is part of Russia’s GRU military intelligence service

Reporters did not identify any chemicals specifically associated with chemical weapons in Catrosa Reactiv’s import data. However, Miguel Ángel Sierra, a professor of organic chemistry at the Complutense University of Madrid and former member of the scientific advisory board of the international Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said the chemicals it imported from Europe were sanctioned because they had multiple potential uses, including creating explosives.

“These have been banned by the European Union because they are industrial products”, he explained. “For example, there are many processes you can’t carry out, including the preparation of explosives, the preparation of pharmaceuticals, and the preparation of many other things, without having some of these products”.

Spain’s Audiencia Nacional — a court that deals with terrorism and major crimes — confirmed to OCCRP that Oleinikova and her two children are among nine suspects currently under investigation for “smuggling banned substances”. All nine suspects have been released while the investigation continues, and no one has been charged with a crime, the press department for the court said.

Please follow Blitz on Google News Channel