One of the warehouses where a plot, now dismantled, illegally manufactured tobacco for hookahs, in Vélez-Málaga (Málaga). AEAT (Europa Press)
Stainless steel tanks, vacuum packaging machines and pallets full of merchandise.
The setting looked like any other industrial warehouse.
But in these facilities, located in the Vélez-Málaga industrial estate (Málaga, 82,967 inhabitants), the activity that took place was as exotic as it was illegal.
A criminal organization used the machinery to produce tobacco for hookahs without permits or controls, a product that it distributed throughout Europe.
They had the capacity to produce 65,000 kilos per year, whose market value is around three million euros.
The Civil Guard assures that it is the largest illegal tobacco factory for hookahs discovered in Spain.
During their actions, the agents have arrested three people and are investigating three others for these events.
A shipment of merchandise destined for France put the Civil Guard on the track in mid-2021. There was no specific address of origin, but they did know that it was somewhere in Vélez-Málaga.
The investigators finally found the facilities, spread over four industrial buildings, and began surveillance.
They found out that in one of them the tobacco was received hidden between clothes or between slippers.
In another, with a video surveillance system, the rest of the raw materials necessary to flavor the final product were found, as well as the packaging and other elements.
The third worked as a factory.
And the fourth of logistics center and warehouse with product ready for distribution.
It is estimated that the production capacity exceeded 250 kilos per day, which were sold in different European countries.
After the exploitation of the operation —called Revene-Glycerin and promoted by the Tax Agency and the Civil Guard of Algarrobo (Málaga)— the agents seized 6,000 kilos of tobacco for hookah, just over 2,000 kilos of chopped tobacco leaf and treated, as well as 51,000 labels of different products and brands in various languages.
Also crushers, grinders or tanks, among other machinery.
There are three people detained – two of Jordanian nationality and one Egyptian – as well as three others under investigation.
Those arrested are charged with the crimes of tobacco smuggling, against industrial property, against workers' rights, against public health, belonging to a criminal group and money laundering.
The manufacture of tobacco for hookah in these facilities in Malaga has surprised the Civil Guard, although the province is no stranger to the smuggling of traditional cigarettes.
In 2020, in fact, they dismantled the first illegal underground tobacco factory in Europe in an operation in which Europol also participated.
They had the capacity to produce half a million units a week and 17.6 tons of cut tobacco were seized from them.
Just two months ago, in January, another investigation made it possible to put an end to an illicit network that had facilities distributed throughout different Andalusian municipalities —including Antequera (Málaga)— that had even greater production capacity: two million cigarettes a day.
