Tobacco worth €1 million seized in Guardia Civil raid

AS part of its ongoing fight against the illegal sale of tobacco, the Guardia Civil has arrested three people in Toledo Province.

Acting on a tip-off that a group was selling unregulated tobacco and cigarettes, officers identified that the main culprit was resident in Aranjuez and was operating from an industrial estate in Ontigola.

Officers established that those involved were obtaining raw tobacco leaves and were then stripping and drying the material selling it either loose or in cigarette form via the internet and there were records of them making 907 courier shipments in five months.

When the warehouse was raided,  6,320 kilograms of leaf tobacco were found together with a number of pieces of equipment which allowed for cigarettes to be manufactured as well as computer and packaging equipment.

Two women and a man were arrested and it is estimated the material seized had a value of €1 million whilst the Treasury could have been defrauded of tax to the value of €3 million if all of the tobacco had been sold.