"Operation Toys"

 

• In the course of the operations, 24 searches have been carried out, 19 people have been arrested so far and 400,000 euros in cash have been seized.
• The plot, which has carried out more than 15,000 operations in recent years, had transferred part of these to Holland to avoid Spanish customs controls.

 

November 17, 2014.- The Tax Agency, with the participation of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, has dismantled an international organization dedicated to the import and marketing of goods originating in China, responsible for the commission of multiple crimes against the Public Treasury, smuggling, money laundering, membership in a criminal organization, falsification of official and commercial documents and against industrial and intellectual property. The total amount of the tax fraud committed exceeds 100 million euros, and for its commission the plot would have carried out more than 15,000 imports in recent years.

The organization imported goods originating from China to introduce them into the European Union, declaring customs values lower than those legally established, as well as not fully declaring the internal sales of the goods, thus defrauding the Public Treasury in both import tariffs. as in VAT and Corporate Tax.

The investigations that have given rise to the operation, called 'Juguetes', began in 2011 by officials of the Tax Agency. The organization has been operating for years, changing procedures and dispatch locations, to avoid being detected. In recent years, and in order to avoid Spanish customs controls, the organization began to carry out the introduction of goods into the community territory through Holland, although the products largely had the Spanish market as their end-use.

 

More than twenty searches and arrests

During the development of this operation, carried out by Tax Agency officials assigned to the National Fraud Investigation Office (ONIF) and the Department of Customs and Excise Taxes, 24 searches have been carried out in companies and private homes. Specifically in Coslada, Paracuellos del Jarama, Parla, Brunete and Fuenlabrada, all in the province of Madrid; Azuqueca de Henares (Guadalajara), Cabañas de la Sagra (Toledo), Alicante and in the municipalities of Oria, Chirivel and Albox (Almería).

During the searches, documentation, computer files and other evidence have been seized, as well as 400,000 euros in cash, resulting in the arrest of a total of 19 people, mainly of Spanish and Chinese nationality, in different locations in Madrid (16 people), Alicante (one person) and Almería (two people). At the international level, there has been the collaboration of the Dutch judicial authorities and the FIOD (Dutch tax police).

In the next few hours, the detainees will be placed at the disposal of the Investigative Court No. 6 of Fuenlabrada, which has decreed the secrecy of the proceedings.