The Civil Guard and the Tax Agency, within the framework of the ‘NUTS’ operation, have intercepted 25 tonnes of almonds with very dangerous toxins. In the operation, four people have been arrested from Mallorca, three Spaniards and one from the Netherlands, for alleged crimes of document falsification and against public health.
Operations began last January, following the arrival in Spain of 25 tonnes of almonds from Australia through an import process that is believed to have followed regulations. After the almonds arrived in the province of Alicante, the foreign health department of the Government Delegation to Alicante analyzed the said fruit, which resulted in very high levels of aflatoxin (a very toxic fungus that is harmful for human consumption). Therefore, from that very moment the importer of the said almonds was informed that they were to be destroyed.
This man living in Mallorca took the initiative to do so and requested authorization from health to transfer the cargo to Mallorca and destroy it in an incinerator. Once the almonds reached the town of Binisalem for its destruction, those responsible for transporting the cargo broke the sanitary seal of the container where they were transported and deposited the cargo in an industrial warehouse. They then proceeded to change the type and size of the containers and moved the almonds to Alicante as they were being investigated by the authorities.
At the same time, instead of destroying the almonds, he replaced the cargo with other almond shells of the same amount, obtaining a certificate from the company certifying the destruction of all 25 tons of almonds with toxic substances. In this way, they tried, with material and documentary falsification, to divert for consumption a product that was highly injurious to health.
Investigators eventually managed to proceed with the stabilization of the cargo in Alicante and arrested the four men responsible for the importation, transportation and destruction of the almonds. The operation has been carried out by the Nature Protection Service of the Civil Guard and the Custom Surveillance of the Tax Agency.
