The Civil Guards arrested and investigated 65 people in 14 actions organized as part of the international operation. OPSON XIThe passport was coordinated by Interpol and Europol, focusing on horsemeat, honey, meat and fish products, olive oil, spirits and organic food.
A total of 74,000 controls were carried out in 26 participating countries, 137 people filed a criminal complaint with the judicial authorities80 arrest warrants were issued and 2,078 violations were reported.
Eight criminal networks have also been identified and disbanded, in total, as reported by the General Directorate of the Armed Institute this Saturday. 26,800 tons of food and 15 million liters of alcoholic beverages captured.
In this edition of the operation, agents total 2,530 checks and inspections in domestic distribution centers, warehouses, commercial surfaces, transportation vehicles, container and financial warehouses, ports and airports.
In the first phase of the operation, between December 2021 and May of this year, the Civil Guard intensified surveillance and actions against agri-food fraud. manufacture and distribution of counterfeit or low-quality products.
Agents have detected several patterns of operation, such as: document forgery import of defective or non-compliant products as well as falsification of seals or stamps on containers.
They were also found in provinces such as Alicante, where agents deployed an international network dedicated to the trade of Egyptian oranges contaminated with chlorpyrifos (a pesticide whose use has been banned in the EU since 2020) 20 tons intervened, 13 people investigated.
In Seville, they deployed a network dedicated to shipping large quantities of goods. bulk oil An investigation was launched against five people about the product in question, which poses a “serious” risk to public health because it is not suitable for consumption due to lack of traceability.
And a criminal group from China devoted itself to commercialization. saffronin a performance where agents from Malaga, in collaboration with Europol, among others, arrested five people and investigated six more, interfering with more than 10,000 kilograms of substances, while in reality it was molecularly modified gardenia.
in Santander, Seprona investigated a criminal group Six people were arrested and ten investigated, who falsified the identity and transport documents of Cantabrian horses so that they could be included in the food chain and subsequently sold in France without the appropriate legal requirements.