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The Tax Agency dismantles an illegal tobacco factory capable of producing up to 1.5 million packs per month

Rough blow for tobacco smuggling

  • It is the first time that a clandestine factory dedicated to the production of tobacco has been intervened in Spain.
  • The 'Cage' operation, developed in Coslada (Madrid) and Guadalajara, has led to the arrest of six people and the intervention of industrial machinery and 16.5 tons of tobacco bites 
  • The illegal production was in an initial phase and the tax fraud avoided is estimated at a minimum of 3 million euros

June 11, 2013.- Customs Surveillance Officials from the Tax Agency intervened last Friday in the Coslada industrial estate (Madrid), the first illegal cigarette factory detected in Spain . If it had come into operation, given that the Tax Agency's action occurred in an initial phase of the production chain, the factory would have had the capacity to produce up to 1.5 million packs of tobacco per month. In the so-called 'Cage' operation, Customs Surveillance has carried out the intervention of 16,500 kilos of chopped tobacco that was going to be used as raw material and several machines and tools used for the illegal manufacture of cigarettes. The action has also led to the arrest of six people, who have already been brought to justice accused of an alleged crime of smuggling.

Operation 'Cage', presented this morning by the director of the Customs and Special Taxes Department of the Tax Agency, Pilar Jurado, began with the investigation carried out on a warehouse located in an industrial estate near Guadalajara. According to these preliminary investigations, it was considered that said ship could have previously housed an illegal cigarette factory destined for the Spanish smuggling market, an illegal activity that, apparently, had already been abandoned.

From that moment on, the users of the Guadalajara warehouse are subjected to surveillance and investigation without detecting illicit activities until, finally, the illegal facility located in the Coslada industrial estate (Madrid) is discovered, where, presumably, this criminal group organized group was going to start illegal cigarette manufacturing again.

Three containers a month of illegal tobacco

The capacity of an average illegal tobacco manufacturing line like the one detected in Coslada is about 500,000 packs every 10 days of production. In this way, each month the Coslada warehouse could manufacture 1.5 million packs, equivalent to three 40-foot containers fully loaded with cigarettes.

The speed in the intervention of the Customs Surveillance agents has allowed the factory to be dismantled in an initial phase of manufacturing. In the Coslada warehouse, a total of 16,500 kilos of crushed tobacco suitable for making 'American Blend' type blonde cigarettes, three machines and various utensils and tools used for the illicit manufacture of cigarettes have been seized. In addition, a small quantity of counterfeit cigarettes that could have been produced by the organization and were ready for distribution have been seized at the Guadalajara warehouse.

The value of the 16,500 kilos of chopped tobacco is estimated at more than 2 million euros, and with that amount more than one million packs of tobacco could have been produced, the equivalent of two containers full of cigarettes. The fraud avoided to the Public Treasury with this intervention exceeds 3 million euros, taking into account only the intervened tobacco and not the possible future manufacturing.

Connection with Eastern countries

Also as a result of the 'Cage' operation, in which Customs Surveillance agents from the General Subdirectorate of Operations of the Customs and Special Taxes Department of the Tax Agency, and the Regional Operational Units of Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha, have participated, Six people have been arrested: a Spaniard, a Ukrainian, and four Poles. All of them have already been brought to justice accused of an alleged crime of smuggling for illegal possession and production of tobacco products.

Fifty factories detected in Europe

It is the first time in Spain that an illegal facility of this type with the machinery and raw materials necessary to produce cigarettes has been detected and intervened. Based on the investigations carried out within the European framework, it is understood that the phenomenon of illegal cigarette manufacturing was especially affecting other Member States and countries around the European Union. In fact, since 2004, 54 illegal tobacco factories have been dismantled in the EU, mainly located in Northern and Eastern European countries such as Poland, the Baltic States, the Czech Republic and Germany, among others. Outside the Union, most of the illegal facilities were located in Russia and Ukraine. During 2013, two illegal factories in the European Union were dismantled last May, one in Lithuania and the other in the Netherlands.

Illegal factories are set up near large population centers or areas with the highest consumption of counterfeit or contraband tobacco. They produce intensively for short periods of time and change locations easily to avoid detection. In this sense, criminal organizations take advantage of the small space that this machinery requires for its location, as proven by the size of the ship detected in Coslada. On numerous occasions, the same machinery moves through different countries with the same purpose of avoiding detection.

The illegal manufacture of cigarettes is an international problem that affects most of the countries of the European Union and accounts for a significant portion of the illicit trade in these products, along with counterfeit cigarettes from Asian countries and traditional smuggling of cigarettes. the same. Operation 'Cage' is part of the control measures implemented by the Tax Agency aimed at combating tobacco smuggling.