Big Tobacco Faces Big EU Counterfeit Problem

Big Tobacco Faces Big EU Counterfeit Problem
Packs of euro banknotes during a raid where more than 3.5 million packets of contraband tobacco were seized, in Seville, Spain, on Jan. 22, 2023. Guardia Civil/Handout via Reuters
Reuters
Updated:

MADRID—Spanish police raided three clandestine tobacco factories early this year, seizing nearly 40 million euros ($44 million) worth of tobacco leaf and illicit cigarettes.

At one, in the northern town of Alfaro, they found 10 Ukrainian workers, five of them war refugees, who'd been put to work with no contracts and scant pay, police said. They worked all day for and lived at the factory, forbidden from leaving.