- The market value of the tobacco, which was hidden in a container from China, exceeds 2,200,000 euros
- The operation has resulted in the arrest of 11 people

Spain’s Tax Agency have seized 491,500 hidden “Marlboro” cigarette packets in Barcelona smuggled in from China. Worth a street value of 2,200,000 euros, the confiscated cigarettes would have defrauded Spain’s Inland Revenue of 1.75 million euros in tax had they gone into the market. 11 people in all, nine of whom are Chinese nationals, have been arrested and charged. They are accused of smuggling in goods and forging documents.

Operation ‘Moto’, as it was called, was launched this September, after Customs Surveillance officers from the Inland Revenue in Valencia had alerted their counterparts in Barcelona of a container from China stated to be holding bags but whose profile fitted that of a suspicious shipment of smuggled cigarettes.

Once the container’s cigarettes were detected during at scan at Customs, a five-day-long surveillance and monitoring operation was launched, involving Customs Surveillance officers from the autonomous regions of Valencia, Madrid, Aragon and Catalonia. The container was finally transported by lorry to a furniture warehouse in Montcada (Barcelona) on the morning of 25 September.
On its arrival at the warehouse, seven people started to unload the lorry, while the driver coordinated the operation with three other individuals. It was then that Customs Surveillance officers from the Inland Revenue raided the place, arresting and charging all the suspects.

The cigarette packets, which are possibly counterfeit and await official confirmation as such, bore health warnings in Spanish and falsified duty stamps. Those arrested, nine of whom are Chinese and two Spanish, are charged with smuggling in goods and forging documents, as well as infringing industrial property laws, if it is confirmed the cigarettes are counterfeit.

 

More than 6.8 million cigarette packets

These operations come under the Inland Revenue’s fight against fraud and are part of its efforts to secure the supply chain and prevent tax and customs fraud, in line with the provisions set out in the Inland Revenue’s Tax and Customs Monitoring Plan for 2012.

Thanks to monitoring at customs zones and Customs Surveillance investigations and operations, the Customs and Excise Department ended up confiscating over 6.8 million cigarette packets on 31 August of this year, representing a 5.4 % increase on 2011.

It also issued a total of 6,278 charges for smuggling-related offences and violations, 35% more than it had in 2011, and carried out the arrests of 112 people (70% more than in the previous year). Spain would have been defrauded of a total of 21 million euros in taxes, had the seized goods reached the market.