Joint operation between the Tax Agency and the Civil Guard

• The waste, untreated and posing a risk to people and the environment, was exported by sea inside containers

• The dismantled organization had several businesses that issued invoices in the name of third parties to make it appear that the merchandise sold was decontaminated.

March 17, 2026. The Customs Surveillance Service of the Tax Agency and the Civil Guard have dismantled a criminal group responsible for the illegal transport of up to 650 tons of hazardous waste that the organization transported in a container from the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife to various African countries. As part of these actions, 32 people and four companies, with addresses in Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Mallorca, are being investigated for crimes against natural resources and the environment.

Customs Surveillance officials from Santa Cruz de Tenerife and agents from the Nature Protection Service (Seprona) of the Caldera de Taburiente, on the island of La Palma, detected a continuous flow of goods traveling in containers by sea, between the port of Santa Cruz and several African countries.

The suspects concealed their activity through false invoices to avoid inspection of the merchandise or denial of export. In this way, they sent waste of very diverse nature abroad, including hazardous waste, generating a risk to the environment and to the health of people.

Hazardous waste that has not been decontaminated

Among the exported goods were electronic and electrical waste, mostly motors or compressors illegally extracted from discarded refrigeration equipment without proper decontamination. This allows the gases contained within it to be released into the atmosphere, creating a risk to human health and the environment.

There were also spare parts and car parts, also without proper decontamination, and around 38 tons of fire extinguishers. Similarly, the network sent numerous cars, vans and trucks, with false documentation to facilitate their export as second-hand goods. In total, the organization would have illegally transported approximately 650 tons of hazardous waste, along with 86 tons of non-hazardous waste, valued together at 800,000 euros.

The criminal network was led by five people with distinct roles. Two of them, residents of Gran Canaria, carried out the management, both documentary and logistical, to export the waste. The other three individuals, residents of Tenerife, sent the waste directly, or through third parties, and obtained all the necessary legal, illegal or falsified documentation.

To give the appearance that the merchandise sold was decontaminated, the organization had several businesses that issued invoices in the name of third parties, in some cases even unaware of the activity of this criminal network.

Prohibition and crime 

The crime of illegal waste transfer, introduced into the Penal Code in 2015, is punishable by a prison sentence of three months to one year, or a fine of six to eighteen months and special disqualification from profession or trade for a period of three months to one year. The illicit trafficking of hazardous and other wastes is a growing international concern due to the need to rigorously control transboundary movements, as well as the need to reduce such movements to a minimum, as set out in the preamble to the United Nations Treaty on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, the so-called 'Basel Convention'.