Europe’s largest counterfeit perfume factory dismantled in Catalonia, Spain arrests ‘man of a thousand names’ and more news on Wednesday February 18th.
Europe’s largest counterfeit perfume factory dismantled in Catalonia
A huge factory that produced tens of thousands of litres of perfume imitating some fifty luxury brands for distribution to the rest of Europe via France has been dismantled in Catalonia (northeast Spain), Spanish authorities announced Tuesday.
The Ministry of Finance (the ministry that oversees customs) described this facility as “the largest counterfeit perfume factory in Europe to date”.
Eleven people have been charged with belonging to a criminal organization, smuggling and infringement of industrial property at the conclusion of the investigation, which is not yet finished and could lead to further arrests, the ministry said in a statement.
The trafficking was discovered in October, but the arrests and searches took place on February 8th during a large-scale operation involving Spanish and French customs services and the Mossos d’Esquadra (Catalan police).
In total, more than 1.2 million counterfeit products were seized in three warehouses located near Girona (south of the French border), with an estimated value of more than €94 million based on the prices of authentic products on the market.
The factory had “seven production lines with a potential capacity estimated at four million bottles per year” and “raw materials for the manufacture of 150,000 litres of the different fragrances”, the statement added.
Storage, labelling, packaging, the network was very organized and had all the necessary equipment.
Agents seized more than 850,000 counterfeit perfumes in one warehouse and 350,000 in another location.
After intercepting several thousand bottles falsely labelled “very fragile”, French customs warned their Spanish counterparts and surveillance operations were then set up, uncovering trafficking to France and other European countries on board trucks and vans registered in particular in Romania.
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Spain nabs gang that used dead people’s addresses to legalise migrants
Spanish National Police have dismantled a network in Almería that used false padrón town hall registration certificates to fraudulently legalize the status of undocumented immigrants.
The investigation, dubbed ‘Operation Resurrection,’ resulted in the arrest of four people – two women and two men – who stand accused of document forgery and facilitating illegal immigration.
According to the investigation, seven foreign nationals managed to register at the same address using falsified documents bearing the name of a person who had died years earlier.
The resulting padrón certificates were submitted to Spain’s Immigration Office to begin the process of regularising their immigration status in Spain.
Spain’s La Liga scores victory over VPNs in football piracy fight
La Liga escalated their battle against football piracy on Tuesday as a Spanish court granted precautionary measures against two VPN services.
The Spanish top flight said in a statement that they and multinational telecommunications company Telefonica had been informed of judicial decisions ordering NordVPN and ProtonVPN to block IP addresses used for illegal streaming of La Liga matches.
La Liga heralded the measures, which are not subject to appeal, as “unprecedented in Spain and pioneering worldwide”.
The statement said the court orders recognise VPN (Virtual Private Network) service providers as “technological intermediaries falling under the scope of the European Digital Services Regulation”, and are thus obliged to prevent “the commission of infringements through their infrastructures”.
Last year French courts ordered VPNs for the first time to block illegal sports streaming sites, a decision Canal+ and the LFP (Professional Football League) described as “a turning point” in the fight against piracy.
La Liga have been fighting against football piracy for years in various forms, and in January said they would offer football fans in Spain €50 ($59) for providing tip-offs about venues showing football illegally.
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Spain arrests ‘man of a thousand names’ wanted in Peru
Spanish police said Tuesday they have captured a fugitive known as “the man of a thousand names” wanted by Peruvian authorities for alleged possession of explosives.
The suspect, who belongs to a Peruvian gang called “Los Terribles del 17”, which is involved in violent crime, was arrested in Madrid after months of investigation, Spain’s National Police said in a statement.
“He had deliberately removed his fingerprints and was using a stolen identity belonging to someone else,” it added.
The man previously took part in a mass escape in 2012 from Challapalca Prison, a remote high-altitude maximum-security facility in southern Peru that houses violent criminals.
He was arrested again in 2024 while in possession of an explosive device and ammunition, with evidence suggesting his involvement in extortion and contract killings.
However, he managed to evade justice once more by fleeing to Spain. He is now in custody pending extradition.
Peru is grappling with a crime wave fuelled by a surge in extortion schemes as gangs exert increasing control over urban areas.
With additional reporting by Alex Dunham, The Local Spain’s Editor
