The Spanish Royal Family has been engulfed in a new drug scandal after one of its extended members was arrested for allegedly laundering a cartel’s money. Francisco de Borbón von Hardenberg, a distant cousin of King Felipe and his father, Juan Carlos, was one of the four people arrested this week for their alleged involvement with one of Spain’s biggest narcotic cartels.

Borbón, 47, who is linked to the Spanish royalty through his father, Francisco de Borbón von Escasany, the 5th Duke of Seville, allegedly laundered the cartel’s cash through cryptocurrency. He has been released on bail. The cartel was led by Spanish police chief Óscar Sánchez Gil, who was head of the fraud and anti-money laundering division before his arrest in 2024 and Ignacio Torán, a suspected drug kingpin based in Spain, the Times reported.

Police found more than £17million (€20million) in cash, suspected to be the proceeds of drug trafficking, when searching his homes two years ago, in what has been described as the country’s biggest cocaine bust.

The walls and furniture were stuffed with more than €20 million in cash, allegedly the proceeds of drug trafficking. He had, it was alleged, an insatiable appetite for money and had set up a criminal family business, involving his police officer wife, at the heart of one of Spain’s biggest narcotics cartels.

A distant cousin of the former King Juan Carlos and, as the youngest son of the Duke of Seville, a scion of Europe’s royal house of Bourbon, Francisco de Borbón seemed unlikely to have led a dull life. Yet in the latest revelation from a scandal that has rocked the country, he has been arrested for allegedly laundering the group’s drug cash through cryptocurrency.

The newspaper claimed that Borbón’s name appeared in Ireland’s official registry as one of the founders of ET Finetch Europe, a cryptocurrency firm cited in the case being investigated.

Spanish newspaper, El País, reported that it had seen documents showing that the Dublin-registered company listed Borbón alongside two other suspects: Juan Ángel Cervera, known as “Juan the financier”, who allegedly designed part of the financial architecture used to move drug money, and Ángel Luis Cano, who has denied any involvement.

The Times said the aristocrat’s arrest has made “headlines news in Spain”.

Borbón is based in Madrid and Marbella and has been married to Austrian communications expert Sophie Elizabeth Karoly since 2021.

His mother was German noblewoman, Countess Beatrice von Hardenberg-Fürstenberg, who died in 2020.

He was last pictured in public last May, when he attended the funeral of his father.