Disrupted tobacco smuggling bands were the most active, 35 detained

Editor’s Note:  Translation courtesy of CRE.

From: lainformacion.com

The tax agency and the Andorran police have dismantled the most active tobacco smuggling organizations in Spanish territory in an operation that has led to the arrest of 35 people in five autonomous communities.

In addition, in the so-called ‘operation Alga’ 237.500 packs of tobacco have been seized and more than 20 entries and records have been in homes and shops.

Activity in Spain and a fraud estimated at 10 million euros a year, these groups controlled the entry of tobacco from Andorra, its distribution and its sale in legal businesses, as reported by the tax agency.

The detainees are accused of belonging to a criminal organization and their offences of smuggling against the public finance and money laundering, among other things, will face justice in the coming hours.

35 Arrests have been carried out in Galicia (23), Catalonia (8), Spain (2), Asturias (1) and Castilla – La Mancha (1).

The tax agency has explained that these criminal groups had extensive networks that allowed the distribution of contraband goods throughout the national territory.

The now-disabled organizations were able to circulate the tobacco from Andorra to various points of sale distributed throughout the national territory, with a special incidence in Galicia.

The investigation was directed by the titular judge of Magistrate’s Court number 2 in Santiago de Compostela, José Antonio Vázquez Tain, and began following the collapse in January of 2012, another network of smuggling to the seizure of two containers with tobacco from Dubai and Canary, destined to the Galician market supply.

At that time, the tax agency arrested 19 and seized a total of 450,000 packs of tobacco, which had cost the State’s coffers 1.5 million euros, leaving desabastecido in Galicia contraband tobacco market and gave rise to the entry of the smuggling network from Andorra, which has now been dismantled.

In the course of the operation seaweed research, carried out by Customs Oversight of Galicia and Catalonia and the Andorran police, is intercepted a dozen shipments of tobacco smuggling from Andorra, which led to the apprehension of 237.500 cigarette packs.

Among consignments detained during the investigation is practiced in A Coruña on 4 June, where he intercepted a truck from the Principality which had a double bottom that almost 75,000 packs of tobacco were hiding.

In the final phase of the investigation, carried out yesterday, were entries and records in the homes of the investigated.

Similarly, there were several commercial facilities from which tobacco smuggling, among others, two posts in the market of Santa Lucia (A Coruña) and three in the market of stone (Vigo), known hotbeds of distribution of contraband cigarettes and counterfeit goods are distributed.

Within the framework of these records have been discovered more than 170,000 euros and 15,000 cigarettes, in addition to several pieces of clothing and counterfeit handbags.

The detainees include the leaders of organizations of smuggling, leading the introduction of tobacco in Spain, its distribution and even sale in points, as well as multiple active sellers of tobacco smuggling that took advantage of the appearance of business legal to put at the disposal of the consumer illegal tobacco.

The tax agency says that records have found evidence of high earnings accumulated the smugglers, who managed accounts with hundreds of thousands of dollars of movements.

The judge has completed cars blocking the accounts of all the members of the network, as well as the preventive seizure of their property and vehicles throughout the national territory and in Andorra.

The Tax agency and the Andorran police have dismantled tobacco smuggling organizations most active in Spanish territory in an operation that has led to the arrest of 35 people in five autonomous communities.