A joint operation by the Tax Agency and the Guardia Civil

• Seven people are being investigated as alleged perpetrators of a crime against the environment
• The waste, whose end-use was countries on the African continent, has been seized in the port of Algeciras, where it arrived via maritime containers.

July 11, 2022.- The Risk Analysis Unit (UAR) of the Algeciras Customs, made up of Customs Surveillance officials from the Tax Agency and civil guards, in collaboration with the team of the Nature Protection Service (SEPRONA) of the Algeciras Command, has intervened, within the framework of the 'Boukali' operation, more than 200 tons of highly polluting waste that arrived at the port of Algeciras through maritime containers.

The investigations began in May 2021, when agents detected the existence of an organisation that was using export routes from the national territory and the rest of the European continent to African countries to transport large quantities of undecontaminated waste inside maritime containers, posing a serious risk to the environment.

The organisation purchased high-value waste from recycling centres or scrapyards, such as truck or car engines, appliance compressors, used electronic devices and other industrial parts that were not subjected to the relevant decontamination process required by current regulations.

Once they had collected enough waste, they loaded it into a container until it reached its full capacity, in some cases even exceeding the maximum load capacity, which posed a risk to the container ships themselves. Up to 33 tons of waste have been intervened in a single container.

Once the waste was loaded, the containers were transported by container ships to African countries; specifically Senegal, Guinea, Nigeria, Ghana and Mauritania. In these countries, it is common for waste to be handled by workers without any protection. They also use uncontrolled burning to extract the materials of interest, releasing all kinds of smoke and polluting gases into the atmosphere.

These transfers violated a wide range of regulations, both European and national, regarding waste treatment and the environment, not including any documentation or sometimes providing decontamination certificates that were not valid, while also posing a serious risk to the environment, as highly polluting substances such as industrial oils or refrigerant gas leaks occurred.

As for the seized material, 588 butane and propane cylinders were recovered, belonging to merchants dedicated to the sale of fuels that had reported their theft, charging those under investigation with an alleged crime of receiving stolen goods.

The waste also included a multitude of pieces of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), containers of refrigerant gases and hazardous substances that influence the depletion of the ozone layer and global warming, as well as being harmful to human health if not managed and treated properly. Likewise, five vehicles prepared for export have been seized, which did not comply with the recent Royal Decree 265/2021 on end-of-life vehicles.

The total amount of polluting waste seized during the operation exceeded 200 tonnes.

For all the above reasons, an investigation is being carried out against seven people, three of them Guinean nationals, two Senegalese nationals, one Nigerian national and one Spanish national.

All the seized material has been made available to the courts in order to authorize its delivery to a CAT (Authorized Treatment Center) for its appropriate management and decontamination.