Madrid - Spanish police have detained six people in connection with a 600-million-dollar fraud on the London stock market, police said Wednesday.

Four of the suspects were held in Barcelona, one in Madrid and one in Elche in the south-east of the country.

The detainees were suspected of falsely advertising a company without real funds, the stock exchange value of which they increased through complex financial operations and falsifications, making large sums of money from the sales of its shares.

The company falsely claimed to being doing business with the Argentine government and to have funds in Brazil.

It was floated on the stock exchange in 2003 and forced to suspend operations two years later, when the British authorities began investigating it, according to Spanish police sources.

The detainees included the suspected mastermind behind the fraud. (dpa)