Joint operation of the Tax Agency, Civil Guard, OLAF and Europol

• In the operation, 27 people have been arrested and three investigated, and 110 tons of gases that deplete the ozone layer have been seized.
• The operation has been carried out in eleven provinces (Granada, Valencia, Albacete, Toledo, Madrid, Murcia, Málaga, Seville, Jaén, Córdoba and Badajoz)

June 28, 2022.- The Tax Agency, in a joint operation with the Civil Guard, Europol and OLAF, has dismantled an important criminal organization, structured in four levels, dedicated to illicit trafficking in Spain of greenhouse refrigerant gases, that is, fluorinated gases that deplete the ozone layer, many of them even flammable.

In the operation, 27 people have been arrested, including the leaders of the network, and three have been investigated for the alleged crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, smuggling, against the Public Treasury and Social Security, money laundering, against the environment. , against public health and against workers' rights.

110 tons of different types of gas valued at eleven million euros have been seized, several cases for transferring gas to air conditioning, 364,000 euros in cash, several high-end vehicles, a large amount of documentation and computer material, 600 air conditioning units conditioning, in addition to 435 grams of cocaine base, 435 ecstasy tablets, material for cutting narcotic substances, a precision scale, a presser and other effects used for drug trafficking. Likewise, 20 home searches have been carried out, ten companies have been inspected and arrests have been made in eleven provinces (Granada, Valencia, Albacete, Madrid, Toledo, Murcia, Seville, Almería, Jaén, Córdoba and Badajoz)

As a precautionary measure, bank accounts of the members of the organization have been totally or partially blocked.

They sold refrigerant gas three times cheaper

The investigations began in September 2021, when Seprona was able to verify that in different locations in Granada greenhouse refrigerant gas (GHG) imported from China was being clandestinely sold at a price three times below the market price by not pay the corresponding taxes to the Spanish Treasury, for which a joint investigation was opened with the Tax Agency in functions of both judicial police and jurisdictional assistance, the Central Operational Environmental Unit of the Civil Guard (UCOMA), Europol and OLAF .

As a result of these investigations, a network of companies structured into four levels of criminal operations was discovered in which, on the one hand and as the first level, is the importer of these gases whose company is based in Valencia and, below, a network distribution company whose two leaders have their operations base in Granada. It was also discovered that the latter had, in turn, a secondary distribution network spread throughout Andalusia and other Spanish provinces.

The importer of the gas from China introduced it irregularly, taking advantage of the so-called external community customs transit, which allows a company to circulate through the territory of the European Union merchandise imported from non-EU countries destined for a third country, located outside the EU. Union, all without the need for said merchandise to be subject to the satisfaction of any type of import duty, tariffs, taxes or commercial policy.

Thus, it introduced into Spain, specifically through the port of Valencia, tons of gas that would supposedly travel through several EU countries to its end-use in a third country such as Jordan, but the truth was that this merchandise would remain in Spain and would be distributed. by the organization throughout the national territory for a final amount three times below the market price, a price that was promoted by the aforementioned tax exemption, in addition to the avoidance of the Tax on Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases. In particular, the non-payment of this tax, to the extent that it is a specific tax figure of the Spanish system, generates significant unfair competition in the sector of their distribution in the national market.

To facilitate the circulation and distribution of the merchandise throughout Spanish territory, the leader of the organization had created a ghost company in Portugal that was supposedly the recipient of the merchandise, which gave the appearance of legality to the gas transports if they were eventually inspected by the agents, trying to make them believe that the cargo was headed to the neighboring country.

The detainees laundered the money obtained through a shell company created for this purpose, or by purchasing high-end vehicles or real estate; but above all they did it through a Madrid travel agency, whose leaders have also been arrested, where clients paid for gas as vacation packages or hotel services.

Fluorinated Gases Regulation

Regulation (EU) No 517/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on fluorinated greenhouse gases regulates the introduction of these gases into the European Union and provides, among other things, that operators must be registered on the F-Gas portal. The investigators have verified that the companies attached to this criminal organization were not registered in said registry, nor did they have authorization for the marketing and distribution of fluorinated gases, nor did the workers have adequate training for the trafficking, manipulation, storage and sale of gases. greenhouse effect (GHG).

On the other hand, in the month of March, during an inspection of an industrial warehouse owned by the detainees, the agents located a consignment of R404A gas that had entered through the port of Valencia. These bottles should have ended up in a warehouse in Hamburg (Germany) for subsequent export to Jordan, however, they were found in a warehouse in an industrial estate in Jun (Granada), with said gas fraudulently entering Spain.

It should be noted that transfers between bottles of these types of gas require authorization and must be carried out under optimal safety conditions for people and the environment, something that was done in a rudimentary way with the consequent danger, since the distributors They could mix gases of different nature, which usually leads to serious breakdowns for the equipment in which they are used. 

The proceedings are at the disposal of Court number four of Granada and the Environmental Section of the Granada Prosecutor's Office.