Joint operation of the Tax Agency and the National Police

• One of the warehouses was equipped to accommodate the workers – including toilets, kitchen and sleeping cabins – in order to prevent them from going outside.
• In one of the searches, ten mobile phones were found in airplane mode; This confirms that the workers, in addition to being isolated from the outside, were also deprived of communication to avoid being located.
• The production capacity of the factory, which had the necessary infrastructure to work day and night, allowed it to produce around 180,000 packs a day.

March 2, 2021.- Customs Surveillance officials from the Tax Agency and agents from the National Police, in a joint operation, have dismantled two illegal factories dedicated to the clandestine production of cigarettes and shisha. One of the warehouses was equipped to accommodate workers – including toilets, kitchen and sleeping cabins – in order to prevent them from going outside. In one of the searches, ten mobile phones were found in airplane mode; This confirms that the workers, in addition to being isolated from the outside, were also deprived of communication to avoid being located. The factory's production capacity, which had the necessary infrastructure to work day and night, allowed it to produce around 180,000 packs a day.

The investigation began in November 2020, when Bulgarian authorities alerted agents of the imminent arrival in Spain of a Bulgarian citizen with the aim of working in a clandestine tobacco factory in our country. Thanks to this information, a joint operation was established by the Tax Agency and the National Police, which culminated in the location of the individual in a residential area near the city of Valladolid.

Last January, investigators located two industrial warehouses in Fuensaldaña and a third in the San Cristóbal industrial estate, all of them in the province of Valladolid. They also observed that the suspect was in contact with other people and that the places mentioned were frequently visited by them.

The workers were completely isolated from the outside and incommunicado to avoid their location.

Several actions have allowed sporadic activity of large tonnage trucks entering and leaving the warehouse to unload merchandise, as well as private vehicles, to be detected in the warehouse located in Fuensaldaña. In addition, the arrival of several individuals who entered the building but did not leave was also confirmed, which showed that some activity was taking place there.

For these reasons, an operation was carried out last February to inspect the three industrial warehouses and the home under investigation. As a result, investigators discovered that the warehouse located in Fuensaldaña concealed a clandestine factory containing all the machinery necessary for the complete production of tobacco - from the transformation of the leaf into loose cut tobacco to the packaging in the pack and its subsequent packaging - as well as a large quantity of products for the production of cigarettes. They also observed that the warehouse was equipped for the complete accommodation of the workers - with toilets, kitchen and sleeping cabins - in order to prevent any exit to the outside during the time they were in the factory.

On the other hand, the second registered ship (also in Fuensaldaña) corresponded to an old facility that seemed to have housed a similar infrastructure to the previous one, although it had been dismantled. In the third warehouse, located in the San Cristóbal Industrial Estate, they found another facility for the manufacture of tobacco intended for shisha consumption. Here they found a tobacco leaf grinder, buckets filled with fermented tobacco leaves and various products for its preparation.

Finally, a home was searched and a total of ten mobile phones were tapped in airplane mode, confirming that the workers, in addition to being completely isolated from the outside, were deprived of communication to avoid being located.

Nine arrested and 35,000 euros in cash seized

In the final phase of the investigation, the agents arrested eight individuals of Ukrainian nationality, as well as the main suspect, of Bulgarian nationality, who has been remanded in custody. Seven of those arrested were found inside the warehouse used as a clandestine factory for producing cigarette packets while they were carrying out this activity.

The searches also yielded numerous products and machinery intended for illegal activity -crushing machines, mixers, packaging machines, mechanical bulls and compressors, among others-, 35,000 euros in cash, 257,800 packs of cigarettes of a well-known brand and numerous documents. In addition, a pair of spray-painted sunglasses were found inside a van frequently used by the suspects. This is evidence of the security measures taken by those under investigation to prevent the workers themselves from identifying the location of the warehouses.

The investigation found that the factory's production capacity, given that it had the necessary infrastructure to work day and night in two work shifts, allowed it to produce around 180,000 packs a day.

Filming and photos of the operation (to download the content, enter the following web address): https://we.tl/t-k4ChecLkEh