Slaves to look after the marijuana and illegal tobacco factories of the Chinese mafia

The image, which has been repeated in different parts of the country recently, points to a new trend in human smuggling, including the mafia. drug trafficking They take advantage of vulnerable foreigners on Spanish soil or recruit them directly outside our borders with promises of a better life.

For example, the “gardeners” of a gang of Chinese drug traffickers in the Community of Valencia “poverty“When they were captured, EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA learned from the Prensa Ibérica group. One of the leaders of the organization went to Barcelona six months before setting up cannabis plantations around Valencia and Castellón. “cheap labor”and there, other Chinese nationals identified the first victim they had recruited for him.

The most basic human needs

In a sentence of the Court of Cassation to which this newspaper has access, it is stated that the promises in question were “used by taking advantage of the material situation”. poverty and her Irregular stay on Spanish soilThey needed nothing more than to promise him food, a roof, and a legal job.

But when he got to the industrial warehouse where he was imprisoned, what he found was “most basic human needsAware of the “danger” he would face if he refused, he bowed to the Chinese smugglers who caught him until he was rescued by the National Police.

The mafia repeated the same procedure with the other two victims, who were “in Spain in a state of poverty and disorder”, although this time in the city of Valencia. They were caught near a nearby Chinese establishment. North Station and they also acted as protected witnesses after being rescued.

millionaire fines

According to the forensic documents EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA had access on 26 April, Supreme Court He dismissed appeals and upheld the conviction of six arrested members of the Chinese mafia, as many of those involved are still in jail. unknown place and some of them could not even be identified.

Those who managed to catch the police, Castellon County Court He convicted them in May 2022 of crimes against public health, human trafficking, involvement in a criminal group, electricity fraud and coercion.

Of these, 2 persons, who were assigned a more important role within the organization and were determined to be directly responsible for human trafficking and coercion, were 3 times the value of the seized drugs, ie. 2 million eurosand prison sentences 16 years 5 months for one and 11 years 5 months for another, sentences range from 4 to 10 years for the rest of the gang.

cardboard as bed

A similar situation was found in Catalonia by mossos, which supposedly joined in 2021. long operation. In the video released by Corps, cardboards with quilts, bottles filled with a yellow liquid or windowless rooms can be seen as beds. Rescue of ten people who had been enslaved by a Chinese mafia for a year to grow cannabis.

In this case, also, part of the explanation is given why these mafias chose Spain to produce the drug that they would later trade internationally, and that it was cheaper for them.

“They vacuum packed the cannabis and shipped it to markets where it can be found. triple the value Regarding the Spanish market,” explains the police agency, pointing out that the distributed network will benefit from operating close to the Spanish market. 2 million euros With sales in countries such as the United Kingdom or the Netherlands.

However, unlike the Valencian Community example, this network brought in the people it would imprison, even though they were chosen by their own farms, directly from abroad to tend their fields. economic fragility. To do this, they pretended to be members of a company that, for example, were going to attend a fair in Lithuania, and after entering the Schengen area, they organized their trip to Spain and their passports were confiscated.

illegal tobacco in Spain

EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA learned that in Lithuania and Latvia, another organization offered itself to work in a newspaper by posting advertisements in newspapers. tobacco factory in spain. The ‘chosen’ then went to Barcelona’s El Prat airport; where a liaison officer would pick them up in a vehicle with tinted windows and take them to a safe house in Vitoria or a warehouse in the province’s industrial area. lava.

There, in a hermetically and acoustically isolated pavilion, they would not only have to work, but also live 24 hours a day. The detected production rate was so high that they came to production, as explained by the forensic documents that this newspaper reached. 1.5 million packages per weekwhich made it the largest illegal tobacco factory in the country.

Although the prosecution sought 89 years in prison from the factory management for membership in a criminal organization, ongoing crimes against workers’ rights, or illegal detention, the Álava State Court finally convicted the four members of smuggling, which resulted. in sentences ranging from one year and 6 months and four years, besides the payment Fines from 1 to 2.1 million euros.