Spain. An organization that was dedicated to the illicit trafficking in Spain of greenhouse refrigerant gases has been dismantled by the Civil Guard, the Tax Agency, Europol and OLAF.
This operation allowed the intervention of 110 tons of different types of gas valued at 11 million euros, several gas transfer cases to air conditioning, 364,000 euros in cash, several high-end vehicles, a large amount of documentation and computer equipment, 600 air conditioners, in addition to 435 grams of cocaine base, 435 ecstasy tablets, material for cutting narcotic substances, a precision scale, a presser and other effects used for drug trafficking.
Likewise, 20 house searches have been carried out, 10 companies have been inspected and arrests have been made in the provinces of Granada, Valencia, Albacete, Madrid, Toledo, Murcia, Seville, Almería, Jaén, Córdoba and Badajoz.
They sold refrigerant gas three times cheaper
The investigations began in September 2021, when SEPRONA was able to verify that in different locations of Granada greenhouse gas (GHG) imported from China was being sold clandestinely at a price three times below the market price by not paying the corresponding taxes to the Spanish Treasury.
As a result of these investigations, a network of companies structured in four levels of criminal operation was discovered in which, on the one hand and as the first level, the importer of these gases whose company is based in Valencia and, below, a distribution network whose two leaders have their base of operations in Granada. It was also discovered that the latter in turn had a secondary distribution network spread throughout Andalusia and other Spanish provinces.
The importer of gas from China introduced it irregularly under the figure of the so-called external Community customs transit, which allows a company to move through the territory of the European Union merchandise imported from non-EU countries to a third country, located outside the Union, all without the need to be subject to such merchandise to the satisfaction of any type of import duty, nor tariffs or taxes or trade policy.
Thus it introduced into Spain, specifically through the port of Valencia, tons of gas that would supposedly travel through several countries of the EU to its final destination in a third country such as Jordan, but the truth was that this merchandise would remain in Spain and would be distributed by the organization throughout the national territory for a final amount three times below the market price, price that was propitiated by the exemption of taxes mentioned, in addition to the avoidance of the Tax on Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases. In particular, the non-payment of the Tax on Fluorinated Gases, insofar as it is a specific tax figure of the Spanish system, generates significant unfair competition in the sector of the distribution of the same in the national market.
To facilitate the circulation and distribution of the merchandise through Spanish territory, the leader of the organization had created a shell company in Portugal that was supposedly the recipient of the merchandise, which gave the appearance of legality to the transport of the gas if they were eventually inspected by the agents, trying to make them believe that the cargo was going to the neighboring country.
The detainees laundered the money obtained through a shell company created for this purpose, or by buying high-end vehicles or real estate; but above all they did it through a Madrid travel agency, whose managers have also been arrested, where customers paid for gas as vacation packages or hotel services.
Regulation (EU) No. 517/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on fluorinated greenhouse gases regulates the introduction of these gases into the European Union and provides, inter alia, that operators must be registered on the F-Gas portal, and investigators have found that companies attached to this criminal organization were not registered in that register, neither had authorization for the marketing and distribution of fluorinated gases, nor did the workers have adequate training for the trafficking, handling, storage and sale of greenhouse gases (GHGs).
On the other hand, in March, during an inspection in an industrial warehouse owned by the detainees, the agents located a batch of R404A gas that had entered through the port of Valencia. These bottles had to have ended up in a warehouse in Hamburg (Germany) for later export to Jordan, however they were found in a warehouse of an industrial estate in Jun (Granada), entering this gas fraudulently in Spain.
It should be noted that transfers between bottles of these types of gas require authorization and must be carried out in optimal safety conditions for people and the environment, which were done in a rudimentary way with the consequent danger, since distributors could mix gases of different nature, which usually results in serious breakdowns for the equipment in which they are used.
In the operation, 27 people have been arrested, including the leaders of the network, and 3 investigated, for the alleged crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, smuggling, against the Public Treasury and Social Security, money laundering, against the environment, against public health and against the rights of workers.
The proceedings are at the disposal of the court number 4 of Granada and the Environment Section of the Prosecutor's Office of Granada.
