Joint operation by the Tax Agency and the National Police

• Its breakage could cause the trains to derail, so, following the investigation, two warehouses located in Zaragoza have been inspected and one person has been arrested.

• When Ferrocarriles de la Generalitat Valenciana became suspicious of them due to the little similarity they showed with the originals, the company under investigation even issued a document stating that they were authentic.

June 2, 2022.- Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency, in a joint operation with the National Police, and in collaboration with the European Anti-Fraud Office, has intervened one tonne of counterfeit railway bearings, supplied by a company from Zaragoza to Ferrocarriles de la Generalitat Valenciana through a public tender. The use of these bearings would have put the safety of the trains and the passengers themselves at risk, since their breakage would cause the wagons to derail.

The investigation was initiated following a complaint filed by a company, which reported that 160 bearings that were supposedly of its brand had been purchased by Ferrocarriles de la Generalitat Valenciana, but which had been supplied by another company that participated in the public tender and was awarded the tender for the same price as them.

When Ferrocarriles de la Generalitat Valenciana received the first order of 80 bearings, they became suspicious of them due to the little similarity between those received and the originals of that same brand that they had, so they contacted the company under investigation, who sent them a document that "confirmed" their authenticity.

Since the document received gave rise to suspicions of falsification, Ferrocarriles de la Generalitat Valenciana decided to contact the original company, who, with its own experts, confirmed the falsity of the bearings, proceeding to file a complaint for infringement of the trademark and for the high risk involved in falsifying pieces of this importance.

Irregular imports that contravene EU regulations

During the investigation into the company supplying the bearings, importing companies were found to have records of retention and destruction at various European borders. These were irregular imports that contravene European Union regulations on trademark infringement.

With all this information, two warehouses in Zaragoza were inspected, and a sample of the bearings sold to Ferrocarriles de la Generalitat Valenciana was found, and the 160 bearings (one tonne) sold in Valencia were seized. One person has been arrested while another is being investigated for alleged crimes against industrial property and smuggling.

The Customs Surveillance operational units of the Tax Agency in Madrid and Zaragoza, the National Police and OLAF participated in the operation.