A joint operation between the National Police, the Tax Agency and the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Bulgaria

• The arrested persons transported the tobacco in bulk from Bulgaria and, once in Spain, it was transformed into cigarettes in the various factories they had in Catalonia that had the necessary machinery to carry out the primary phase – mixing the tobacco according to the brand – and the secondary phase – transforming the chopped and mixed tobacco into packets and, finally, into cartons.
• They distributed the cigarettes throughout various countries in the European Union - mainly Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain - and laundered the financial benefits through a network of companies.
• The leader of the organization, who had built a network of companies dedicated to the construction of housing, the road transport of all kinds of goods and the purchase of companies abroad, had more than 200 workers dedicated to the construction of housing.
• During the campaign period, the workers lived inside the warehouses with the doors closed, without windows and so isolated from the outside that they did not even know the country they were in.

May 13, 2019 .- Customs Surveillance officers from the Tax Agency and agents from the National Police, in collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior of Bulgaria, have dismantled in Catalonia an international criminal organization of Bulgarian origin that had specialized in the illicit manufacture of cigarettes and their subsequent distribution throughout different countries of the European Union. The operation has led to the arrest of 22 people, 15 of them Ukrainian nationals, two Bulgarian nationals, three Spaniards, one Moldovan and one Moroccan. Nine properties were 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 and crimes of smuggling, intellectual property, money laundering, membership of a criminal organization and against the Public Treasury.

The information received indicated that members of the organisation 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 national and international level. They transported tobacco in bulk from Bulgaria, without passing the relevant customs controls, and used warehouses installed in Spain for the storage of cut tobacco and for the assembly of factories dedicated to its transformation into cigarettes.

They were then distributed to countries in the European Union, mainly Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain. Both the raw materials and the machinery needed to set up these factories were transported from Bulgaria to Spain by land or sea. The economic benefit obtained from this illicit activity was laundered through a network of shell 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 launched which determined how the criminal organisation 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 illegal cigarette factory and work was carried out there for campaigns lasting a few months, which made it difficult to locate.

During the two-year investigation, agents found that the leader of the dismantled group was well established in Spain and had developed a network of legal businesses that supported 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 houses, the road transport of all types of goods and the purchase of companies abroad. This company had more than 200 employees working on the construction of luxury homes in both Spain and Bulgaria, as well as truck drivers from national and international logistics companies.

The leader of the organisation had also acquired a trucking company in Mali and was in negotiations with South African citizens, which shows the particular interest in investing part of its profits in Africa.

By maintaining such a broad legal footprint, 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 organisation used fruit trucks bound for Seville to transport shipments of tobacco destined for the Andalusian province.

The organization used encrypted communications through specific applications for mobile devices and, in their movements, they used powerful inhibitors that were capable of "sweeping" up to 16 different frequencies, which denotes the high specialization of the group.

9 records and two centers dismantled

Once the agents unraveled the illegal activity from the legal one, a coordinated operation was planned to proceed with the arrest of the members of this criminal organization.

The operation, which involved 9 raids and searches with a court order, led to the arrest of 22 people, the dismantling of two centres used for the clandestine manufacture of packets of 13 different brands of tobacco and the seizure of a large amount of material for the manufacture of cigarettes, as well as packets, already manufactured tobacco, chopped tobacco, high-end cars, cash and a large amount of documentation.

At the time of the raid, 14 Ukrainian citizens and one Moldovan were working there. In addition, a Bulgarian citizen acted as manager or controller. Meanwhile, in Sabadell (Barcelona), Galicia and Seville, three truck drivers who regularly carried out distribution tasks for the final product were arrested. A truck was seized in Mercasevilla with 437,500 packets of cigarettes of three different brands.

The building used as a clandestine factory had another structure inside it that was built to soundproof the noise from the machines. In addition, it was equipped with a living area for workers, consisting of rooms for their stay (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 the “secondary phase” (transformation of the chopped and mixed tobacco into cigarettes, then into packs and, finally, into cartons of 10 packs). A second warehouse was found with auxiliary machinery for treating tobacco stings and abundant material for packaging tobacco intended for smoking in hookahs.

The ships were completely closed as a security measure.

During the campaign, the workers lived inside the warehouses in complete secrecy, with the doors of the internal structure closed and without windows. In this way, workers could not communicate with the outside world. Their mobile phones were even taken away and some of them said they did not know which country they were in. All of this is part of the security measures adopted by the criminal organization. These people were residing in the 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.

The production capacity was so large that 13 different brands of cigarettes were counterfeited with legends in Spanish and English. Water pipe or shisha tobacco from a prestigious Arab brand was also counterfeited. Sources in the sector consulted during the operation confirmed that a clandestine factory that counterfeited tobacco products of such a large number of brands had never before been dismantled. This is something extraordinary and unprecedented to date in Spanish territory.

In one day, the factory was able to manufacture enough packs to complete the load of a truck like the one seized in Seville, which was transporting a total of 437,500 packs.

The seized tobacco had a value of 6,586,401.65 euros, which represents a fraud against the Public Treasury of 5,140,886.50 euros, to which must be added the value of the seized machinery for the production of cigarettes when the appropriate appraisal is carried out.

The waste and debris generated by the production system were stored in large boxes placed on pallets in the warehouse located on Penedés Street in the town of San Quirico del Vallés (Barcelona). They were probably 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 needed for packaging tobacco, such as pallets of counterfeit cardboard of various brands of tobacco and rolls of paper (white, silver and transparent).

Finally, the final product was subsequently distributed by trucks that made journeys to Galicia, Andalusia, the United Kingdom and Germany with numerous security measures, even making trailer changes in unpopulated areas.

The investigation was led by the Investigative Court No. 5 of Sabadell.

Filming of the facilities (to download the video, enter the following web address):

https://we.tl/t-RzKPmSkXLe