Joint operation between the Tax Agency and the Civil Guard

• In the operation, four people have been arrested for a crime against Public Health
• The recalled almonds were presumably intended for human consumption with a very dangerous and harmful fungus for health.

May 20, 2023 .- The Tax Agency and the Civil Guard, within the framework of the 'Nuts' operation, have proceeded to intervene 25 tons of almonds with very dangerous toxins. In the operation, four people were arrested, three Spanish citizens and one from the Netherlands, for alleged crimes of document falsification and public health violations.

The operation began last January, following the arrival in Spain of 25 tons of almonds from Australia through an import process that supposedly complied with regulations.

Once the almonds arrived in the province of Alicante, the Foreign Health Department of the Alicante Government Delegation carried out an analysis of the fruit, which resulted in very high levels of aflatoxins (very toxic fungi that are harmful to human consumption).

For this reason, from that moment on, the importer of these almonds was informed that they had to be destroyed. This person, residing in Mallorca, made the commitment to do so and requested authorisation from the Health Department to transfer the load to Mallorca and destroy it in an incinerator.

Once the almonds arrived in the town of Binissalem, those responsible for transporting the goods for destruction broke the sanitary seal on the container in which they were being transported and the goods were deposited in an industrial warehouse. They then proceeded to change the type and size of the packaging and moved the almonds to Alicante due to the checks being carried out by the authorities.

At the same time, instead of destroying the almonds, they replaced the merchandise with shells from other almonds of similar volume, obtaining certificates from the company in charge of certifying the destruction for all 25 tons of almonds with toxins. In this way, with material and documentary falsehoods, they attempted to divert a product that was highly harmful to health to consumption.

The investigators were finally able to immobilise the goods in Alicante and arrested the four people responsible for the import, transport and destruction of the almonds.

The operation was carried out by the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency and the Nature Protection Service of the Civil Guard.