A joint operation by the Tax Agency and the Guardia Civil

• 4.5 million packs and 31 tons of tobacco leaves and cut tobacco have been seized, as well as machinery and precursors for the production of packs.
• 16 people arrested after five searches in different warehouses in Navarre and the Basque Country where cigarettes were illegally manufactured for the European market
• With all the criminal activity, the dismantled criminal group would have obtained economic benefits estimated at around 80 million euros.
• With 12-hour work days and poor sanitary conditions, the organization was able to produce a million cigarettes a day, with more than 14 million packs produced in the last few months of activity until its dismantling thanks to police action.

December 14, 2022 .- The Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency and the Civil Guard of Navarra, with the support of the Central Operational Unit (UCO), have completed the 'Baserría/Trampantojo' operation that has led to the dismantling of what is considered the largest network of contraband tobacco manufacturing and distribution dismantled to date in Europe.

The operation began after investigators obtained information about suspicious activities taking place on several farms and ranches located in different areas of the Pamplona Basin and the Northern Aralar Region in Navarre.

The investigations carried out revealed evidence of criminal activity, and surveillance measures were therefore put in place in these areas.

During the course of the investigation, the agents discreetly followed the owners, as well as some of the workers on the farms and livestock farms.

It was found that these people took strong security measures to avoid being discovered. From the surveillance exercised on these people it was learned that they held meetings in restaurants with different truck drivers; They were then guided to warehouses located in industrial estates in Navarre and the Basque Country, where they loaded and unloaded palletised and stored products. The researchers suspected that it could be tobacco leaf for later manipulation and transformation into the final product, simulating tobacco from different commercial brands commonly used in Spain and other European countries, with the corresponding label in each language.

International cooperation

During the investigation, EUROPOL supported the exchange of information with the countries of origin and transit of the raw materials needed for the manufacture of tobacco in Spain, more specifically in the Autonomous Community of Navarre, where cigarette manufacturing was carried out in a clandestine factory, camouflaged in a warehouse belonging to a farm. 

The operation

After locating a large infrastructure installed and segmented in Navarre and the Basque Country dedicated to the production of tobacco cigarettes, the Judicial Authority was asked to enter and search the clandestine factories.

In Spain, five raids and searches were carried out in clandestine buildings located in the two autonomous communities, where more than three million packets of tobacco, more than 27 tons of tobacco leaf and more than 3 tons of cut tobacco, as well as machinery and precursors for the production of packets were seized.

Once the material was seized, the alleged perpetrators of the illegal activity were arrested. A total of 16 people have been arrested (six Spanish, seven Ukrainian and three Bulgarian). They are considered the alleged perpetrators of seven crimes (smuggling, membership in a criminal group, crime against workers' rights, crime against industrial property, crime against public finances, human trafficking and crime against public health).

Also noteworthy during the operation was the arrest of a truck driver who was transporting 7.2 tonnes of already manufactured tobacco stored in ten-pack cartons ready for sale, equivalent to 300,000 packs, which, together with those seized at the Navarra factory and other locations, amount to a total of 4.5 million packs.

Production capacity and assets derived from illicit activity

Inside the Larraun-Aldatz (Navarra) warehouse, the records of the clandestine factory's activity were seized, which showed, based on the production of cigarette packs, that it was highly active. In the months leading up to the police operation and until its completion, a total of 14,421,000 packets of cigarettes were produced, according to the accounts seized. The factory's estimated production capacity would be 3,175,000 packs per month, around one million cigarettes per day.

The criminal group is believed to have made almost 80 million euros from the illegal activity of producing and distributing tobacco.

Long working hours and poor health conditions

Seven Ukrainian workers were found in a tobacco manufacturing plant in Navarra. Inside the ship, the ringleaders of the plot had built a secondary ship, which would form a kind of chest, containing all the framework corresponding to the clandestine factory and which they had hidden with straw so that from the outside it would appear to be completely occupied by this product. The access area to the interior was hidden by an area dedicated to carpentry and agricultural material, all of which had to be moved with lifting machinery to make way for a sliding door. This was done to prevent the manufacturing plant from being detected during a possible inspection.

The workers were housed and carried out their work in the secondary interior warehouse that was used as temporary accommodation. The ship had been built like a large hermetic box, with all secondary exits blocked and only one exit enabled, but locked by an external padlock.

Working conditions included daily work days averaging between ten and twelve hours, and workers did not leave the warehouse at any time during the day. One of the ringleaders was in charge of making the purchases that the Ukrainian workers themselves requested.

In addition, occupational risk prevention regulations were violated; that is, obstruction of access to the outside, lack of ventilation, combustion gas emissions, visible cables with a clear risk of causing a short circuit, and fundamentally the absence of escape routes in the event of any type of fire or accident, which had a very high risk of occurring due to the type of activity being carried out. These seven workers, who were included in the investigation as participants in the plot, are free pending a court ruling.