Tax agency brings down Spain’s largest illegal tobacco factory

VITORIA (Álava, Galicia) 09/09/14 -- A warehouse within an industrial estate in Vitoria was the headquarters of a gang that possessed everything needed to manufacture 1.5 million packs of cigarettes every week. Eighteen people were arrested,  in various places (Álava, Guipúzcoa, Navarre and Seville) used by the gang to store and/or to further process their illegal brands, most of Lithuanian or Latvian citizens, as well as Spanish nationals.  Operation Unicornio was four times larger than a similar operation uncovered last year in Guadalajara.
The agents confiscated the machinery used to make the cigarettes, as well as 240,000 packs of popular Spanish brands such as Austin, Goal ready for sale, plus over one million cigarettes not yet packaged, also of Austin and Goal, but also of American Legend, Ibiza and Palermo. These brands belong to the ‘cheaper’ end of the market. At Vitoria and the other warehouses, some 35 tons of tobacco leaf were ready for production.