In a kind of zulo under a few blocks of horse, with ventilation by generators and without seeing the light of day. This is how the workforce of a network of criminals dismantled by the Civil Guard in the province of Malaga worked and was about to die of suffocation if the agents had not discovered the hiding place during the development of an operation that has allowed the detection of the first factory underground tobacco clandestine in Europe.
The investigation led by the Economic Crime Group of the Central Operating Unit (UCO) has concluded with the arrest of 20 people, the completion of 13 records of homes and industrial buildings, the seizure of 153,000 packets of tobacco ready for sale, 17 , 6 tons of tobacco sting, 20 kilograms of hashish and 144 of marijuana, as well as the dismantling of an indoor cannabis plantation.
The criminal organization was mainly made up of British citizens and also some Lithuanians and Ukrainians. The leader was Daniel Dobbs , 30, a heroin and amphetamine trafficker who had been searched and captured by British police since November 2018, when he fled from Hatfield Lakes prison. Another of the detainees, identified with the initials AR and of Lithuanian nationality, was also claimed by the authorities of his country for crimes related to smuggling.
The arrested adopted numerous security measures to avoid detection and keep hidden their main source of illegal business: a clandestine tobacco factory located in the municipality of Malaga in Monda and that was underground, the first of these characteristics located in Europe, with ability to produce 3,500 cigarettes per hour.
"To prevent the identification of this factory, hidden in a stable of horses, the criminal organization used heavy machinery that, pushing a large tonnage sea container, exposed access to these clandestine facilities," said the Civil Guard. It was not until the night of the day of the police action when the entrance was discovered and through a forklift and some stairs descended four meters under the ground to the machinery.
Inside the cabin were found six workers of Ukrainian nationality who lived in unsanitary conditions and whose contact with the outside was null, being totally locked up and abandoned to their fate, due to the police detention of the rest of the members of the criminal organization at first In the morning and they did not inform the agents of the presence of these people.
The air supply depended on a large electric generator powered by diesel and had to be replaced daily. This was turned off during the day that the agents acted, which caused that the oxygen did not reach the facilities, making the conditions inside the factory dangerous for their life.
"These, when noticing the lack of air, went to the exit of the bunker, which was blocked from the outside, at which time they began to scream and hit the container that blocked the exit", however, the civil guards did not they heard the cries for help because the factory had been soundproofed "to prevent the noise of the operating machines from going outside."
"Thanks to the tenacity of the UCO agents, access to the clandestine factory was finally located and, once inside, they saw with surprise the six workers with difficulties to breathe in a totally unhealthy environment," said the Civil Guard.
The members of the criminal organization arrested at no time warned the agents responsible for the investigation of the presence in the workers' zulo, although they could have died.
The investigation was carried out with the support of the British security forces and bodies, with the Europol AP SMOKE file, as well as with other foreign police.
The Court of Instruction number 1 of Coín deals with the case and has decreed prison for 12 of the detainees.
The operation has also served to discover the whereabouts of Daniel Dobbs. The National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom disclosed its image and requested citizen collaboration to locate it in March last year. He had been sentenced to 13 years in prison after being arrested with four other men in an operation where police dismantled a drug laboratory in the city of Doncaster .
Specifically, almost two million pounds of amphetamine and ingredients were seized to manufacture substances worth 2.3 million pounds.
On November 2, 2018, Dobbs - known as Dobbo by his friends, a word tattooed on his back - was fled when he did not appear in his cell at Hatfield Lakes, an open prison.
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