Twenty-two arrests as two illicit tobacco factories manufacturing 13 different brands of cigarettes are dismantled
A joint operation between the National Police, the Tax Agency and the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Bulgaria
- Those arrested transported the tobacco in bulk from Bulgaria and, once in Spain, it was transformed into cigarettes in the different factories in Catalonia that had the necessary machinery to carry out the primary phase – mixing the tobacco according to the brand – and the secondary phase. –transformation of chopped and mixed tobacco into packs and, finally, into cartons.
- They distributed cigarettes throughout various countries of the European Union - mainly Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain - and laundered the economic benefits through a network of companies.
- The leader of the organization, which had woven a network of companies dedicated to the construction of homes, the road transport of all types of merchandise and the purchase of companies abroad, had more than 200 workers dedicated to the construction of homes.
- During the campaign season, the workers lived inside the warehouses with the doors closed, without windows and so cut off from the outside that they did not even know the country in which they were located.
May 13, 2019 .- Customs Surveillance officials of the Tax Agency and agents of the National Police, in collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior of Bulgaria, have dismantled an international criminal organization in Catalonia of Bulgarian origin who had specialized in the illicit manufacture of cigarettes and their subsequent distribution throughout different countries of the European Union. The operation has allowed the arrest of 22 people, 15 of them of Ukrainian nationality, two of Bulgarian nationality, three Spaniards, one Moldovan and one Moroccan. Nine properties have been registered in the operation, all of them in Catalonia.
Illegal tobacco production
The investigations began in June 2017 when investigators became aware of the existence of a criminal group from Bulgaria, organized to commit allegedly criminal activities constituting crimes of smuggling, intellectual property, money laundering, membership in a criminal organization. and against the Public Treasury.
The information received indicated that members of the organization would travel from Bulgaria to Spain with the aim of establishing various factories for the production of illegal tobacco and creating a distribution network for this product at a national and international level. They transported tobacco in bulk from Bulgaria, without passing the pertinent customs controls, and used warehouses installed in Spain to store chopped tobacco and to set up factories dedicated to its transformation into cigarettes.
Subsequently, they distributed them to countries in the European Union, mainly Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain. Both the raw materials and the machinery necessary for the assembly of these factories were moved from Bulgaria to Spain by land or sea. The economic benefit obtained from this illicit activity was laundered through a network of instrumental companies. They also used credit cards to commit fraud in different establishments.
More than 200 people worked for the leader of the organization
Following this initial information, a joint investigation was initiated that determined how the criminal organization had three industrial warehouses in Spain. Two of them were located in the Barcelona town of San Quirico del Vallés and were used as warehouses, while the third was located in Constantí, in the province of Tarragona. The latter housed the illicit cigarette factory and work was carried out there for campaigns lasting a few months, which made it difficult to locate.
During the two years that the investigation lasted, the agents verified that the leader of the dismantled group was perfectly settled in Spain and had developed a network of legal businesses in which he covered his criminal activity. This person, together with others he trusted, including a Spaniard and a Moldovan, had woven a network of companies dedicated to the construction of homes, the road transport of all types of merchandise and the purchase of companies abroad. . This person had more than 200 workers dedicated to the construction of luxury homes both in Spain and Bulgaria and with truck drivers from national and international logistics companies.
Furthermore, the leader of the organization had acquired a road transport company in Mali and was holding negotiations with South African citizens, which highlights the special interest in investing part of its profits in Africa.
By maintaining such extensive legal activity, investigators were forced to do painstaking work to decipher what part of the organization's activity was legal and what part was not. As an example of this, the organization used fruit trucks headed to Seville to transport shipments of tobacco destined for the Andalusian province.
The organization used encrypted communications through specific applications for mobile devices and, when traveling, they used powerful jammers that were capable of “sweeping” up to 16 different frequencies, which denotes the group's high specialization.
9 records and two centers dismantled
Once the agents unraveled the illicit activity from the legal one, a coordinated device was planned to proceed with the arrest of the members of this criminal organization.
The operation, which resulted in 9 entries and searches with a court order, allowed the arrest of 22 people, the dismantling of two centers intended for the clandestine manufacture of packs of 13 different brands of tobacco and the seizure of abundant material for the manufacture of cigarettes, as well as packs, manufactured tobacco, chopped tobacco, high-end cars, cash and abundant documentation.
At the time of the search of the clandestine factory, 14 Ukrainian citizens and one from Moldova were working inside. In addition, a Bulgarian citizen acted as manager or controller. Meanwhile, in Sabadell (Barcelona), Galicia and Seville, three truck drivers who regularly carried out the distribution of the final product were arrested. A truck was seized in Mercasevilla with 437,500 packs of tobacco from three different brands.
The warehouse used as a clandestine factory had another structure built inside with the purpose of soundproofing the noise of the machines. In addition, it was equipped with a housing area for the workers, consisting of living quarters (beds, toilets, showers) and a common area with a kitchen. On the other hand, the Bulgarian controller or foreman was located outside this internal structure, with a separate compartment used only by him.
The factory had machinery for what is known as the “primary phase” (mixing the tobacco that goes into cigarettes according to the brands) and “secondary phase” (transformation of the chopped and mixed tobacco into cigarettes, then into packs and, finally, in cartons of 10 packs). A second warehouse was found with auxiliary machinery for treating the bite and abundant material for packaging tobacco for smoking in hookahs.
The ships were completely closed as a security measure.
During the campaign, the workers lived inside the warehouses in total secrecy, with the doors of the internal structure closed and without windows. In this way, the workers could not communicate with the outside world. Their mobile phones had even been taken away and some of them stated that they did not know the country they were in. All of this is part of the security measures adopted by the criminal organization. These people were in a situation of stay in national territory and, therefore, were not authorized to work. They had been introduced into Spain by road after arriving in the European Union on flights from Ukraine.
Production capacity was so important that 13 different brands of cigarettes were counterfeited with legends in Spanish and English. Waterpipe or shisha tobacco from a prestigious Arab brand was also counterfeited. Sector sources consulted during the operation confirmed that never before had a clandestine factory that counterfeited tobacco products of such a large number of brands been dismantled. This is something extraordinary and unheard of to date in Spanish territory.
In one day, the factory was capable of manufacturing enough packs to complete the load of a truck like the one seized in Seville, which transported a total of 437,500 packs.
The confiscated tobacco had a value of 6,586,401.65 euros, which represents a fraud on the Public Treasury of 5,140,886.50 euros, to which we must add the value of the machinery seized for the production of the cigarettes when the appropriate appraisal is carried out.
The garbage and remains generated by the production system were stored in large boxes located on pallets in the warehouse located on Penedés Street in the town of San Quirico del Vallés (Barcelona). Probably, they were waiting to be picked up and transported to another location by one of the trucks used by the organization. This warehouse was also used as a warehouse for the material necessary for tobacco packaging, such as pallets of counterfeit cardboard from various brands of tobacco and reels of paper (white, silver and transparent).
Finally, the final product was later distributed by trucks that made trips to Galicia, Andalusia, the United Kingdom and Germany with numerous security measures, even carrying out trailer changes in unpopulated areas.
The investigation has been directed by the Court of Instruction number 5 of Sabadell.
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