Annual balance sheet of results

  

• The Customs Department of the Tax Agency opened 14,500 files for administrative violations of tobacco smuggling, 53% more than the previous year, after strengthening its controls
• The increased collaboration with other areas of the Agency, as provided for in the 2013 Control Plan, allows coordinated actions against tax fraud to be increased by 22% and their results by 37%
• Customs seized 139 tons of hashish and 15 tons of cocaine, and issued more than 1,900 reports for drug smuggling

March 28, 2014.- The Customs and Excise Department of the Tax Agency seized 10.3 million packets of tobacco in 2013, 18.6% more than the previous year, and filed 136 complaints for alleged money laundering offences, 33.3% more than in 2012. Last year, Customs carried out 411 judicial investigations, made 2,976 arrests and reported 2,350 alleged crimes of smuggling, tax fraud and money laundering.

In 2013, the Tax Agency's customs and excise control work was characterised by a strengthening of the fight against tobacco and drug smuggling, taking into account the changing strategies of criminal organisations, as well as by significant progress in collaboration with other areas of the Agency in the area of tax fraud and an increase in actions to suppress money laundering.

In the area of tobacco smuggling, the Tax Agency has strengthened its actions by focusing on the fight against small-scale trafficking and on detecting new or renewed strategies for introducing the goods into the national territory. In 2013, the Customs Department of the Tax Agency issued more than 1,900 reports on drug smuggling.

 

Small-scale tobacco seizures on the rise

Of the total of 10.3 million packets of contraband tobacco seized in 2013, more than 6.7 million correspond to seizures that have led to charges of smuggling, 5.4% more than the previous year. However, the number of cigarette packs seized for administrative offences, which involve a smaller amount for each case, totalled almost 3.6 million units, 55.5% more than in 2012.

These violations, combined with those arising from the smuggling of cut tobacco and other types of tobacco, resulted in the opening of more than 14,500 investigations, 52.9% more than in the previous year. The highest incidence of small-scale smuggling has been detected in postal shipments, seizures from air travellers and the introduction of tobacco from low-tax territories such as Gibraltar.

At the same time, the Tax Agency has faced two types of fraud that represent a novelty in the phenomenon of tobacco smuggling in Spain. Last year, for the first time in Spain, the Tax Agency detected and dismantled an illegal cigarette factory and managed to prevent the clandestine shipment of a large shipment of contraband tobacco that was intended to be introduced into Spain by sea, a formula abandoned by criminal organisations since the 1990s.

All this work to repress tobacco smuggling has made it possible to avoid fraud in customs duties, VAT and Special Taxes of more than 35 million euros and has been completed with the arrest of 145 people and the reporting of 81 alleged smuggling crimes.

Along with this evolution of tobacco-related criminal activity, there has been a significant increase in drug seizures last year, when the Tax Agency seized almost 15 tons of cocaine, 117% more than the previous year, and 139 tons of hashish, 27% more. This increase in seizures coincides with the reactivation, by criminal organisations, of the so-called "Atlantic route" in the case of cocaine, and the opening of the "Eastern Mediterranean route" for hashish. In both cases, the actions carried out have made it possible to intercept shipments on the high seas, many of which are destined for third countries.

 

Economic crimes and money laundering

Another key activity carried out by the Customs and Excise Department of the Tax Agency is the detection and repression of money laundering generated by various criminal activities. In this area, the Agency reported a total of 136 alleged money laundering offences valued at almost 192 million euros in 2013, 65.2% more than the previous year, and made 164 arrests.

The work carried out by the Customs Department in the fight against tax fraud has been marked in 2013 by the increase in collaboration with other areas of the Agency established by last year's Tax Control Plan, a strategy that has allowed Customs to increase by 22% the coordinated actions against tax fraud in which it has participated (734 in 2013) and its results by 36.8% (195 million euros of tax fraud identified).

The total amount of economic crimes (tax fraud) and money laundering reported by Customs in 2013 amounted to a total estimated value of 387.1 million euros, 49.5% more than the previous year.

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 9 million containers entered and left Spanish ports and 638,000 tons of merchandise circulated through airports.