Joint operation between the Tax Agency and the Canary Islands Autonomous Police

• A person investigated after finding the items in a retail store

June 13, 2023.- Customs Surveillance of the Tax Agency and the General Corps of the Canary Islands Police (CGPC) have intervened, in a premises of a well-known shopping center in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, nearly 700 articles of different prestigious brands for a crime against industrial property. In addition, the person responsible for the business premises has been investigated.

The operation began when, as a result of the investigation carried out by the Las Palmas Customs Surveillance Operational Unit on industrial property, a shop was detected in a Las Palmas shopping centre that apparently offered this type of products.

Once this circumstance was confirmed, an agreement was reached with the Canary Islands Autonomous Police to jointly exploit this information, and on June 1, the suspicious premises were entered and searched.

As a result of the operation, nearly 700 items have been seized, mainly handbags and wallets, which infringe the industrial property rights of different owners. According to the estimates of the specialist experts, the seized items are valued at 440,000 euros.

The trafficking of this type of counterfeit goods or those that violate the approval standards for consumer goods in general, represents a threat to consumer protection, health, safety and other public interests.

In recent years, Customs services have paid special attention to these risk sectors, carrying out coordinated and joint operational actions at national and international level and promoted by the World Customs Organization, OLAF (European Commission Anti-Fraud Office) and Europol, among others.