The Guardia Civil has arrested two individuals after breaking up a large illegal tobacco plant in the municipality of Muro de Alcoy in Alicante. They took more than three million euros worth of illegal goods. The inquiry is still going on, and other actions relating to this operation could happen.
The investigation started in early November of last year, when agents from the Organised Crime and Anti-Drug Team (EDOA) of the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of Alicante saw strange things happening in a warehouse in the Canaleta industrial estate.
The officers saw that the building stayed completely shut during the day and that loading and unloading were happening “quickly and at odd hours.” When they stopped a trailer leaving the warehouse with production apparatus, loose tobacco and screen-printing plates for well-known brands, their suspicions were confirmed.
The investigations showed that there was an operational industrial facility that was reportedly set up for the secret production of tobacco and had the right tools and transportation to get it to people.
After the people who were thought to be responsible for the illicit activity were arrested, police searched the industrial warehouse. They took more than 300,000 packets of cigarettes that were ready to be sold on the black market, as well as industrial machinery and a number of large trucks and vans that were presumably utilised to move the products. The overall worth of everything that was taken is more than three million euros.
Poor working conditions
Investigators also found evidence aboard the ship that up to 12 individuals may have been there for long periods of time and in “poor” sanitary conditions.
The courts in Alcoi ordered the two men, who were 22 and 51 years old, to be held in prison until their trial. They are accused of crimes against public health, smuggling, being part of a criminal group, and damaging industrial property.
Author: Derek Appleton
Other Articles
No Comment! Be the first one.