The Tax Agency has disbanded an organization dedicated to the shipment of smuggled tobacco shipments to other European countries and they have arrested nine members, six of them Spanish, two Brazilians and one Portuguese for alleged crimes of smuggling and criminal organization.
As a result of an intervention by the French authorities of a truck loaded with 14,500 kilos of tobacco cuttings that was heading to Spain, the researchers learned that the organization had warehouses in Catalonia and Navarra where it introduced the tobacco in boxes of spare parts. cars for subsequent shipment using a transport company with Portuguese trucks.
Along these lines, they detected that the organization introduced merchandise into Spain through the Gipuzkoan town of Irún, which was sent to other European countries through the border of La Jonquera (Girona).
One of the largest tobacco seizures
The agents have achieved the apprehension of more than 1,400,000 packs, with an estimated market value of more than six million euros, and more than 14 tons of sting, being one of the largest seizures of the year in terms of smuggled tobacco .
In this sense, Customs Surveillance detected in Girona the passage through La Jonquera of one of the trucks that had previously been seen in a guarded warehouse in El Vendrell (Tarragona). Thus, 350,000 packs of cigarettes hidden inside boxes of car spare parts were intervened, in turn arresting the two drivers, of Brazilian nationality.
They also tracked another truck that was heading to a warehouse in El Vendrell to be loaded with the same merchandise bound for Italy, departing from the port of Barcelona. That is why they intervened in the truck, discovering 452,000 packs of tobacco hidden in boxes of auto parts and detaining the driver, a Portuguese national.
At this point, El Vendrell’s ship was searched and its person, a Spanish national, was arrested. Inside the warehouse, another 667,000 packs of tobacco and more boxes of auto parts were found. Finally, several searches were carried out, two of them in Italy, one in Navarra and another in Barcelona, and the other five members of the organization were arrested, all of them of Spanish nationality.
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