Joint operation between the Tax Agency and the Civil Guard

• The four vehicles, valued at around 300,000 euros, were stolen in Madrid and Italy and were headed for the African continent.

• Vehicle identification tasks were made difficult due to the high level of expertise of the criminals in falsifying the different identification elements such as the chassis number or license plates.

August 24, 2024.- Officials from the Regional Customs and Customs Enforcement Department of Las Palmas and the Tax and Border Section of the Civil Guard of the Port of La Luz in Las Palmas have carried out a joint operation during the months of June and July in which four vehicles that were traveling inside two containers from France and destined for the African continent have been recovered. These types of interventions are the result of the risk analysis and selection of suspicious consignments of illicit transport carried out by the Customs and Customs Enforcement Department, and carried out, in this case, by officials of the Regional Customs and Customs Enforcement Unit of the Canary Islands and the Fiscal and Border Section of the Civil Guard, coordinated by the Customs Administrator of the port of Las Palmas, in port areas, where they detected two containers whose contents did not match the declared cargo.

The operation was carried out between June and July, as a result of the risk analysis in the surveillance that is usually carried out in illicit vehicle trafficking at a European level. They managed to intervene in different inspections of four passenger cars inside two containers of goods that were in transit, originating in France and end-use being the African continent.

Appropriate checks were immediately carried out based on a visual inspection of the container and documentary checks of the vehicles and comparisons with the various international police coordination bodies. It was possible to verify that the four vehicles seized had been stolen, two of them in Italy and two others in Madrid, and that they were shipped from a port in France bound for the African continent.

It so happens that the work of identifying the vehicles and their documentation was carried out in a meticulous manner by the Civil Guard, due to the high level of expertise of the criminals in falsifying the different elements of identification of the vehicles such as the chassis number or number plates that were manipulated, the investigators focused on knowing in depth the models of seized cars, in addition to being meticulous in observing details that revealed the modifications made by the criminals.

The estimated value of the recovered cars is around 300,000 euros in total, as their appraisal prices, as of today, range from 25,000 euros for the lowest value, to 116,000 euros for the highest.

The Civil Guard is continuing its investigation in order to identify those responsible for the shipment, and the vehicles are being seized in order to process the corresponding delivery of the cars to their legitimate owners.