(Luxembourg, 19 March 2026) – At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Palermo (Italy), the Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza) of Palermo carried out searches and seized a clandestine cigarette factory, several storage facilities, and 25 tonnes of cigarettes and shredded tobacco.
The factory, located in Castagnaro near Verona, was equipped with all the necessary machinery for large-scale production, with the capacity to produce up to 4 million cigarettes a day. The estimated value of the site is over €2 million.
The searches, which involved over 70 officers, were conducted in the premises of the factory and at warehouses in Monselice and Terrassa Padovana, in the province of Padua. In addition to the clandestine factory, 17 tonnes of cigarettes, 8 tonnes of shredded tobacco, 108 pallets of precursors, and 31 pallets of materials for tobacco production were successfully seized.
Upon entry, 11 individuals of Bulgarian and Ukrainian nationality were found inside the factory and were reported to the national authorities, along with the 2 Italian owners of the factory, for the crimes of possession of smuggled tobacco products and trademark counterfeiting.
The discovery follows several months of investigative work. By following the complete supply chain from several cigarette seizures conducted in the Palermo region, the investigators were able to identify the manufacturing locations, despite the rigorous precautions taken by the transporters to conceal the production sites, including the use of jammers to hide the communications between the members of the investigated criminal group.
Had the seized cigarettes been placed on the market, they would have resulted in a loss of revenue amounting to €3.9 million for the EU and national budgets. The illegal factory was capable of generating an illicit profit of €700 000 per day, exceeding €240 million annually, causing an estimated damage to public finances of approximately €160 million per year.
All persons concerned are presumed innocent until proven guilty in the competent Italian courts of law.
The EPPO is the independent public prosecution office of the European Union. It is responsible for investigating, prosecuting and bringing to judgment crimes against the financial interests of the EU.