Joint operation of the Tax Agency and the Canarian Autonomous Police

• A person investigated after locating the items in a public sale location

June 13, 2023.- Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency and the General Corps of the Canarian Police (CGPC) have intervened, in a location in a well-known shopping center in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, nearly 700 items from different prestigious brands for a crime against industrial property. In addition, the person responsible for the commercial premises has been investigated.

The operation began when, as a result of the investigation carried out by the Customs Surveillance Operational Unit of Las Palmas in matters of industrial property, a store that apparently offered this type of products was detected in a shopping center in Las Palmas.

Once this circumstance was verified, it was agreed with the Canarian Autonomous Police to exploit said information jointly, and on June 1, the suspect premises were entered and searched.

As a result of the operation, nearly 700 items have been seized, mainly bags and wallets, which violate the industrial property rights of different owners. According to the estimate of specialized experts, the seized items would have a value of 440,000 euros.

The trafficking of this type of counterfeit goods or those that violate the approval standards for consumer goods in general, poses a threat to consumer protection, health, safety and other public interests.

In recent years, Customs services have paid special attention to these risk sectors, carrying out coordinated and joint operational actions at the national and international level and promoted by the World Customs Organization, OLAF (Office to Combat Fraud of the European Commission) and Europol, among others.