MADRID: Spanish Guardia Civil arrests a seven member group of smugglers in an operation. Around 83,000 packs of cigarettes were found. Criminal group was introducing contraband tobacco into the province of Huelva.
Officers also confiscated seven motor vehicles, five of which were loaded with cigarettes for distribution, as well as searching various garages, storerooms and warehouses on an industrial estate in Huelva where the illegally imported goods were being stored.
During the raids which resulted in the detention of the ringleader and six other members of the group, the man heading up this tobacco smuggling operation rented out garages and storerooms all over the city of Huelva, and paid salaries to the other members of the group as part of his legally registered business activities.
It’s easy for cigarettes to be smuggled into Spain along its vast coastline, with thousands of places where small pleasure boats can come into shore without anyone batting an eyelid, although it’s equally easy for the authorities to blame their contraband problem on Gibraltar where cigarettes are cheaper. However, they’re even cheaper when shipped into Spain via shipping container from China, pretending to be containers of plastic washing up bowls or that we don´t need destined for your local Chinese megastore. Regular interceptions are just the tip of the iceberg and millions of packs are smuggled into Spain every year.
