Joint operation of the Tax Agency and Civil Guard

• The organization obtained economic benefits of more than one and a half million euros by transferring 5,000 tons of hazardous waste to the African continent

• Operation 'Fortuna' has resulted in 43 members of the criminal organization arrested

January 3, 2023 .- Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency in Las Palmas and the Seprona of the Las Palmas Civil Guard Command, within the framework of the joint operation 'Fortuna', They have dismantled a criminal organization dedicated to international trafficking of hazardous waste to African countries from Gran Canaria.

During the month of November and early December, 43 members of a criminal organization were investigated for alleged crimes against the environment, document falsification and membership in a criminal organization that in the last two years they had managed to move from the island of Gran Canaria to Africa. more than 5,000 tons of hazardous waste from electrical equipment, obtaining economic benefits that exceed one and a half million euros.

At the beginning of the investigation, five clandestine facilities dedicated to illicit waste management were detected throughout the island of Gran Canaria, in which hazardous waste from electrical equipment (WEEE) was collected, stored, handled and loaded for be transferred to African countries, mainly Mauritania, Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal, from the port of La Luz in the capital of Gran Canaria.

For this reason, Las Palmas investigators carried out inspections and searches that led to intervening and immobilizing at source more than 300 tons of this waste and 14 containers that were ready for transfer.

Modus operandi

The criminal organization removed the waste from the legal management channel, for which they had an alleged management company that falsified documents on its origin and management. These wastes, which are classified as dangerous, at the end of their useful life must be delivered to an authorized manager for proper decontamination, since this type of waste has components that contain mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, phosphorus and gases. that deplete the ozone layer and affect global warming.

In the clandestine facilities now closed, the waste was sold to those responsible for the transfer, which was sent to African countries passing it off as second-hand items.

During the course of the investigation, it was detected that the shipment of a total of 331 containers, sent illicitly in the last two years to the African continent, had been managed and organized by the same people who provided the false documentation necessary to pass the waste for items that had been subjected to a decontamination and reuse process.

Likewise, the origin of the waste was falsified, omitting that it left the clandestine facilities, for which the waste identification documents (DI) were falsified, attributing the origin to technical services and recycling plants. Within the criminal organization were waste companies and technical services that certified the merchandise. The proceedings, along with the detainees, are at the disposal of the Provincial Environmental Coordinating Prosecutor's Office of Las Palmas.