MADRID: The Spanish Customs detained over 20 people who allegedly worked for a smuggling group El Lolo. Customs official said the Eastern European gangs are increasingly becoming involved in tobacco smuggling.
El Lolo ran a tobacco smuggling network with relatives and childhood friends, trafficking around 150,000 packets of cigarettes each week during 2014 or 7.5 million over the course of the year – according to police and tax authorities.
Customs also wanted to arrest Francisco José Mancilla, also known as El Largo, but he was allegedly occupied smuggling hashish; instead they took away his wife and sister-in-law. Three days later, after pressure from the women’s parents, Mancilla and his brother presented themselves at court with a €30,000 bail bond in cash for the two women. The men were arrested and charged with belonging to a criminal organization, smuggling tobacco, and money laundering.
Spanish Customs have cracked down hard on La Línea’s tobacco smugglers in recent months, carrying out operations against around 30 different mafias accused of illegally bringing in cigarettes from Gibraltar. The police have also managed to move up the structure of the criminal organizations to identify some of those responsible for laundering the money made from the smuggling.
The Spanish tax authorities say around 120 million packets of cigarettes are imported each year into Gibraltar, which has a population of 30,000 people. The British Overseas Territory obtains 27 percent of its revenue from the business. “It is obviously impossible that these cigarettes are smoked, and that they are harboring smuggling,” says a tax officer.
