Joint operation by the Tax Agency and the National Police

• They had a production capacity of almost 50 million cigarettes per month and had strong security measures such as frequency inhibitors and video surveillance cameras.
• In addition, the first illegal cigarette filter production factory detected in Spain has been dismantled, with the seizure of 20 tons of acetate and the complete machinery for its manufacture with the capacity to produce 600,000 filters per hour.
• Five people have been arrested and almost 15 million cigarettes, machinery for the primary and secondary stages of manufacturing, as well as various materials used for tobacco processing, packaging and storage have been seized.

July 3, 2022.- Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency, in a joint operation with the National Police, has dismantled in the Madrid town of Alcalá de Henares a criminal organization that managed a mobile factory for clandestine tobacco production. They had a production capacity of almost 50 million cigarettes a day and had strong security measures such as frequency inhibitors and video surveillance cameras.

In addition, the first illegal cigarette filter production factory detected in Spain has been dismantled, with the seizure of 20 tonnes of acetate and the complete machinery for its manufacture, with the capacity to produce 600,000 filters per hour. Illegal workers were subjected to strict control over the hours they were forced to work, and were forced to spend up to a week at a time without leaving the factory and in unhealthy conditions. Five people have been arrested and more than 15 million cigarettes, machinery for the primary and secondary stages of manufacturing, as well as various materials used for tobacco processing, packaging and storage have been seized.

The investigation began in 2018 following information provided by the European Anti-Fraud Office, in which a man linked to the illicit manufacture of cigarettes had established a freight transport company that operated throughout the national territory. Thanks to international police cooperation, investigators in collaboration with agents from Bulgaria and Germany were able to discover that a criminal organisation was recruiting Bulgarian citizens with technical knowledge of the tobacco industry to be transported to our country in order to work clandestinely in this activity.

A mobile centre for illegal tobacco production

Investigations by the agents finally allowed them to locate the illegal factory in an industrial estate in the Madrid town of Alcalá de Henares. Locating the factory was particularly difficult, as agents detected that the organisation periodically changed the location of the production centre, which had strong security measures such as frequency inhibitors and video surveillance cameras.

To avoid any suspicion about the activity carried out in the factory, the organization could keep workers for weeks at a time without leaving the factory in unhealthy conditions, without natural light or ventilation, in addition to subjecting them to strict control with security cameras to ensure that they complied with the imposed schedules.

Once the officials gained access to the warehouse that served as an illegal production center, they were able to observe that there were other isolated structures with double roofs and walls intended to hide any activity inside that could be detected by investigators.

More than 15 million cigarettes seized

During the search of the production centre, three members of the organisation were arrested as they were dismantling the facilities to set up the factory in a different location. Inside the ship, investigators seized 15,280,000 cigarettes, 240 kilos of cut tobacco, complete machinery for cutting and packaging cut tobacco, machinery for manufacturing cigarettes, packets and cartons, as well as the necessary material for packaging and storage and security systems such as frequency inhibitors.

Second stage: First illegal filter production factory in Spain

In a second phase of the investigation, in which two arrests have been made, the investigations carried out by the officers allowed the location of three industrial warehouses linked to the criminal organisation. During the raids carried out, an illegal cigarette filter factory was discovered, the first to be detected in Spain to date. In this warehouse, 20 tons of acetate, the precursor material for its manufacture, as well as the complete machinery for its production, have been seized.

The machinery seized had the capacity to produce more than 600,000 cigarette filters per hour. In another of the warehouses, 35 kilos of marijuana and various materials used in the manufacture, packaging and storage of tobacco were seized. Two members of the organization have been arrested at this stage.

The investigation, which estimates the value of the seized tobacco to be more than three million euros, has so far resulted in a total of five people arrested as alleged perpetrators of belonging to a criminal organisation, crimes against industrial property, smuggling and crimes against public health, although the investigation is still ongoing to locate other members of the organisation.