• The organization used a courier and parcel company to facilitate illicit shipments

• During the investigation, nine people have been arrested and six home searches have been carried out in Benalmádena (Málaga) and Écija (Seville).

• The actions have allowed the intervention of a large amount of cash

January 29, 2024.- Officials of the Customs Surveillance Service, with the collaboration of the National Police, have dismantled a criminal organization dedicated to sending contraband tobacco and medicines and prohibited substances through the internet, which had the participation of a parcel and courier company from Benalmádena (Málaga). Nine people have been arrested for alleged crimes against public health, smuggling, money laundering and membership in a criminal organization.

The investigations began in 2022, when a high number of smuggled tobacco tobacco packages, as well as anabolics and other invigorating substances, which had been sent from transport agencies in the province of Malaga, were detected in different provinces.

The large number of shipments of smuggled stings and medicines detected, and the limited collaboration of some of the courier agencies with officials, made investigators suspect the participation of the parcel companies themselves in smuggling and counterfeiting crimes. public health, with the investigation focusing on the operations of a particular agency, located in the Arroyo de la Miel industrial estate, in Benalmádena.

During the time that the investigations have lasted, 1,400 kilos of contraband tobacco have been seized in various actions, valued at 224,000 euros, in addition to some 1,000 anabolic and sexual invigorating pills, and a vehicle has been intervened. used to transport packages prepared to be shipped. Three people were arrested when they were discovered for the crime of flagrant smuggling, discovering the warehouse where the tobacco tobacco was kept and prepared for shipment through the courier company.

Entries and records

On December 13, once the investigations had made clear the participation of the parcel company and a large part of its employees in the commission of smuggling and public health crimes, entries and searches authorized by the Investigative Court of Torremolinos, three in Benalmádena and another three in Écija (Seville), making six arrests of people involved.

In the home searches, 200,000 euros in cash, property of the organization, were found, which were waiting to be introduced into the legal circuit of money through different money laundering operations. Both the detainees, as well as the effects and money seized, have been left at judicial disposal.

The dismantled organization operated in the provinces of Malaga and Seville and, in just over a year and a half, it would have made at least 8,000 shipments with a total of 23,000 kilos of tobacco chips, through the same parcel agency and courier service, for which he would have received approximately 580,000 euros in profit.

Regarding the medications that were offered, all of them were related to erectile dysfunction. They did not comply with the established controls nor had they undergone sufficient quality controls to be consumed by users. Its trafficking and commercialization are illegal as neither its composition nor its effects are guaranteed.