Editor’s Note: Translation via Bing Translate, original Spanish text available here.
From: El Mundo
- Two detainees and a ton of tobacco seized in Mallorca
- This not only tobacco is illegal because of smuggling, is also harmful to health
At the entrance we expect El Abuelo. So head to the four kids who work for this 70-year-old man who wants us to call him Joseph, his middle name. He is the owner of this very home illegal tobacco factory. “I am a producer of unmanufactured tobacco and I have always worked with unions, until two years ago, they began to pay me less for the tax hikes. They also rejected me part of the crop. It was not me that set me the business on my own”, explains man, that forced us to leave the phone in the car before entering the small white hut which hides tobacco. It saves it in yellow garbage bags for recycling plastic.
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The agents of the Guardia Civil in the province of Cáceres confirm this trend. “The problem is no longer the counterfeit tobacco, but the genuine, made in our land. No longer try to copy to the brand, now dried in these factories and crushed to be sold directly in bags. We have several open cases which we are investigating in the area”, assure us. Last year intervened in the town of Talayuela 5.820 grams in an illegal factory. “The problem is not only the fiscal damage causing by these businesses, they also is a serious health problem, because they don’t really know what they are smoking, nor with what type of chemicals the plant from which comes the tobacco has been treated,” they added.
