Guardia Civil Seizes Over 100 Tonnes of Fake Tobacco in Major Catalonia Operation

Guardia Civil has seized more than 100 tonnes of falsified tobacco in one of the biggest operations of its kind in Spain.

Twenty people have been arrested across several provinces in Catalonia, and officers have dismantled a logistics network capable of producing up to 900,000 counterfeit cigarettes a day for distribution across Europe.

During a raid on a warehouse in Granollers, agents also found 11 workers in an irregular situation who were allegedly being exploited.

The operation uncovered large quantities of tobacco leaf and cut tobacco, packaging materials, industrial machinery and hundreds of thousands of finished packets, most of them fake Marlboro products.

Four suspects have been remanded in custody, and investigators say the network may have international links.