Guardia Civil officers uncover huge organic produce scam in Andalucía

The Guardia Civil in Granada province has uncovered a gang selling fake organic fruit and vegetables across Europe. In the last six months alone the gang have sold two million kilos of conventionally grown produce with an 'organic' label all over the continent at much higher prices than those on the normal market.

Officers have arrested four people and are investigating 16 others for crimes of aggravated fraud, falsification of documents, falsification of certificates, use of false certificates, offences against Spain's Hacienda tax office and its Seguridad Social (social security system) as well as membership of a criminal gang.

According to the Guardia Civil, the network, based in the coastal town of Motril, was "systematically" dedicated to "falsifying" the production and sales certificates that must be issued by the organic production control bodies on the traceability of these fruits and vegetables.

Among those arrested are the owner of the company and his key staff including the 'operators' who supplied the conventional fruit and vegetables as 'organic' to the company owned by those detained, as well as the heads of the private companies that issued the false organic certificates that accompanied the fruit and vegetables.

During the investigation, the Guardia Civil's nature and environment protection unit, Seprona, discovered that those arrested also worked with a number of approved laboratories. These laboratories carried out multiple analyses of the products until they gave negative results for phytosanitary products, as their application is incompatible with organic production.

Investigators also found that this company supplied fruit and vegetables harvested from plots that were not included in the official registers of the information system for organic production in Andalucía (SIPEA), which is compulsory. What is more, these fruits and vegetables subsequently left the warehouses in Motril with a lack of traceability and falsified documentation.

The operation started following an inspection carried out by Seprona officers at the company under investigation as part of the Guardia Civil's Operación Opson XI. During the inspection irregularities were detected that led the Guardia Civil to suspect that food fraud could be taking place with the sale of supposedly organic products. Operación Opson XI aims to combat the production and trafficking of counterfeit foodstuffs and the resulting economic fraud.

Seprona has had the assistance of the agriculture, livestock, industry and quality service of the Andalusian regional government in Granada and Hacienda in Granada.