Joint operation of the Tax Agency and the National Police, in collaboration with the European Anti-Fraud Office

• Eight people have been arrested during 18 searches carried out in homes and industrial warehouses in the provinces of Cadiz, Jaen, Malaga and Seville, who distributed tobacco and narcotic substances nationally and internationally.
• 4,600 kilograms of tobacco, 1,182 marijuana plants in the growth phase and another plantation in the assembly phase, cigarette packs of different brands, a simulated weapon, two firearms and ammunition, among other items, have been seized.
• The organization had a production capacity of two million cigarettes a day and had incorporated sophisticated machinery that allowed it to recover tobacco waste from its own manufacturing to generate new products.

January 21, 2022 .- Customs Surveillance officials from the Tax Agency, in a joint operation with agents from the National Police, and in collaboration with the European Anti-Fraud Office, the United Kingdom Customs Service and the Italian Guardia di Finanza, have dismantled a total of five illegal cigarette production centers and two "indoor" marijuana plantations in the provinces of Cádiz, Jaén, Málaga and Seville.

In the framework of the operation, called 'Joro-Jaral', eight people of Spanish, Ukrainian and Moldovan nationalities have been arrested as alleged members of a criminal organisation that distributed tobacco and narcotic substances nationally and internationally. It is estimated that the organisation had a potential production capacity of two million cigarettes per day assuming they worked a single eight-hour shift.

The investigations began in mid-2021, when it became known that a truck had arrived in Spain from Eastern European countries, carrying items intended for the manufacture of illegal tobacco, specifically machines or parts for the assembly of a cigarette production plant and the necessary material for its manufacture.

The agents were able to verify that this vehicle made frequent trips, always heading to the same places, located in the Jaén town of Villacarrillo, Carmona (Seville) and in the Cádiz towns of Medina Sidonia and Jerez de la Frontera. Observation work at these sites allowed us to detect that, in turn, movements of effects occurred in a total of 18 places, specifically three homes and 15 industrial warehouses of different types that were linked to each other.

Once these facts had been confirmed, and given the possibility that a crime against industrial property and smuggling was being committed, a police operation was planned to proceed with the entry and search of the homes and industrial warehouses located, as well as to arrest those responsible and seize the effects that were located. Eight people were arrested, three of them as alleged leaders of the organization and five as collaborators and members of the same.

Two complete factories to produce tobacco

It was also determined that there were two complete factories capable of producing tobacco, located in Medina Sidonia and in the Seville town of Utrera, with the necessary machinery for packaging and packing. They also had the necessary infrastructure to accommodate workers on a permanent basis. Three sites located in Carmona, in the Malaga town of Antequera and in the Jaén town of Chilluévar were equipped with the necessary machinery to process the tobacco leaves and provide the processed material to the others.

Among the various items seized from the organization is a 'recovery machine', a highly sophisticated piece of machinery that is very new in the history of tobacco factories dismantled to date. It is a machine that allows tobacco waste to be recovered from the manufacturing process to produce a new product.

The agents seized from the criminal organization a total of 4,600 kilograms of cut tobacco, 400 kilos of strips (cut and treated leaves), 573 packets of tobacco of different brands, a truck, 2,335 euros in cash, a simulated weapon, two firearms, ammunition and various materials used for the manufacture, packaging and storage of tobacco. Investigators estimate that the organisation would have invested at least two million euros to start up the production chain.

During the course of the operation, a complete marijuana plantation was also located inside a warehouse in Utrera, consisting of 1,182 plants in the growth phase, and another plantation in the assembly phase in Chilluévar.

The operation was carried out by officers from the Investigation Department of the Operations Sub-directorate and the operational units of Seville, Cordoba and Malaga, supported by the Cadiz, Granada and Jerez units of the Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency, as well as by agents from the Central UDEV, the Superior Headquarters of Western Andalusia and the police stations of Malaga, Jaen and Linares of the National Police.