- Seizures of genuine illegal tobacco grow by more than 28% to exceed 7.5 million packs, 86% of the total

- Interdepartmental collaboration uncovered 251 million euros of tax fraud, ten times more than in 2011

In 2012, the Tax Agency, through the Department of Customs and Excise, reported a total of 2,887 alleged crimes against the Public Treasury, money laundering and smuggling of tobacco, narcotics and counterfeit products, and made arrests for smuggling and money laundering against 3,386 people.

Last year, more than 531 million euros worth of assets were seized and confiscated, 65.8% more than in 2011. This figure includes the valuation of both the contraband products seized, with the exception of narcotics, and the properties, accounts, seized balances and other assets seized within the framework of the actions carried out by Customs to combat smuggling, money laundering and tax fraud.

The State Tax Administration Agency (AEAT)'s efforts to crack down on customs fraud, economic crime and smuggling have been characterised in 2012 by an increase in the number of seizures of cigarettes destined for the mainland market, as well as in reports of economic crimes.

At the same time, there has been a significant increase in the value of counterfeit goods seized and, in parallel, a decrease in the quantities of narcotics seized, especially cocaine.

Seizures of genuine tobacco are on the rise

Within the annual fraud control plan designed by the Tax Agency, the fight against tobacco smuggling is one of the priorities. In 2012, and after several years of activity marked by the pursuit of counterfeit products, the efforts of Customs Surveillance to combat this illegal trafficking have focused on the smuggling of genuine tobacco (without brand impersonation), which is increasingly common in Spain due to the increase in demand resulting from its low price.

In this area, seizures have increased by 28.7%, exceeding 7.5 million packets seized. If counterfeit tobacco is included, last year the Agency managed to prevent the introduction of more than 8.7 million packets into the legal market.

At the same time, increased consumption of roll-your-own tobacco has led to increased smuggling of cut tobacco. Given this change in the trend of organised crime, the Agency's actions have led to the seizure of more than 41,600 kilos of cigarette butts, an amount 6.5 times greater than that seized the previous year.

This work to repress tobacco smuggling has made it possible to avoid fraud in customs duties, VAT and Special Taxes of more than 28 million euros and has been completed with the arrest of 158 people and the reporting of 82 alleged smuggling crimes.

The Tax Agency currently has a strategy to combat this illicit trafficking based on increased controls at points of entry and retail distribution, investigations as a Customs Surveillance Judicial Police into distribution networks and money laundering derived from this smuggling, the toughening of the penalty for the crime of smuggling in force since 2011 and the increase in the exchange of information and cooperation with other customs offices.
Faced with this rise in tobacco-related criminal activity, there has been a diversion of drug flows into the European Union to other countries. In 2012, 6.9 tons of cocaine and 109.5 tons of hashish were seized. Last year, the Tax Agency reported 739 alleged cocaine smuggling offences and 1,766 hashish smuggling offences.

The Tax Agency's annual fraud control plan also sets out as a priority activity the comprehensive control of the import and sale of merchandise with the aim of dismantling possible underground economy circuits. In this regard, last year the value of counterfeit products seized doubled, exceeding 339 million euros, as did the number of reported crimes (171), despite the fact that the number of objects seized was reduced by half (1.9 million).

Tax fraud and money laundering

Another key activity of the Tax Agency's Customs and Excise Department is the detection and suppression of money laundering generated from the profits generated by smuggling. In this area, the Agency has reported a total of 102 alleged money laundering offences for a total of 237 million euros and has seized assets worth 137.5 million euros.

In turn, and as a result of actions related to tax fraud in more than 600 operations carried out in 2012, tax fraud amounting to 251.7 million euros has been identified, ten times more than the previous year, with the reporting of 27 alleged tax crimes. In this control function, an increasing use of corporate networks has been identified to carry out fraud related to foreign trade in goods and the movement of products subject to special taxes.

In the tax field, the work of Spanish Customs focuses on the control of the taxes that it is responsible for managing (import tariffs, VAT and Special Taxes) from a perspective that is as least intrusive as possible, with the aim of facilitating normal development of foreign trade. Last year, more than 8.4 million containers entered and left Spanish ports and almost 650,000 tons of merchandise circulated through airports.

The taxes managed by the Customs and Excise Department amounted to a total of 28.4 billion euros in 2012, an amount that represents 39% of the total income collected from indirect taxes.