The Spanish police carried out an operation against the gang that produces fake cigarettes with smuggled tobacco in three different factories and employs Ukrainian immigrants in bad conditions. Police announced that they detained 27 people in operations carried out at different addresses and confiscated millions of Euros worth of luxury vehicles and valuables, including tobacco.
In a joint operation with the Spanish police and Europol, the European Union police agency, they carried out an operation against three factories in the cities of Logrono, Valencia and Seville that produce fake tobacco and fake cigarettes. Stating that more than half a million fake cigarettes are produced daily in factories, the police stated that they detained 27 people and confiscated millions of Euros in tobacco, luxury vehicles and valuables.
Expressing that the immigrant Ukrainians fleeing the war in the factories in question were worked for long hours without being allowed to leave the buildings, the police emphasized that the Ukrainian immigrants lived ‘on top of each other’ in small prefabricated shelters inside the factory. European-based non-governmental organizations drew attention to the fact that after the occupation of Ukraine, many Ukrainian immigrants had to work informally and forcibly for low wages due to the need to find a job quickly and the language problem.