The Guardia Civil of Ourense has focused on the high quality of the counterfeit products seized from a criminal organization operating from different points in Ourense, Portugal and Madrid, with items that included labeling and a QR code that “referred to the websites of the brands.”
“The scale of the seizures, the quality of the goods combined with the economic flow makes us think that we are not dealing with something isolated, but with a structured and consolidated system for the distribution of counterfeit goods,” said Juan José López, captain of the Judicial Police of the Guardia Civil of Ourense, at a media appearance this Tuesday.
The operation, still ongoing and carried out jointly by the Guardia Civil and the Guarda Nacional Republicana of Portugal, has so far resulted in the detention of six people as alleged responsible for crimes against intellectual property, membership in a criminal organization, document forgery and money laundering. The six detainees have been brought before the courts and their entry into provisional prison has been ordered.
As the investigators have detailed, in Spain nearly 80,000 counterfeit items were seized and in Portugal about 40,000 more, which adds up to more than 50 tons of merchandise and a potential value of 20 million euros in illicit profits, with around three dozen “leading” brands affected.
18 months of investigations and searches in Spain and Portugal
The investigation lasted about 18 months, with searches on both sides of the border. In Galicia, seven entries and searches were carried out in the province of Ourense: four in Verín, two in Xinzo de Limia and one in A Gudiña.
The origin of the proceedings is placed at the end of 2023, when the Guardia Civil of Ourense received data about other counterfeiting interventions carried out by the Patrulla Fiscal y de Fronteras de Guernica (PAFIF). “They tell us that, in June and October of 2023, about 400 counterfeit items are seized whose sender would be based in the town of Xinzo de Limia,” Juan José López has recounted.
The first major operation in Ourense took place on March 18, 2024, with the seizure of around 2,800 counterfeit items of clothing. Subsequently, new seizures occurred starting in January 2026, including that of January 23 in Portugal, with about 1,800 pairs of sneakers seized, or that of June 12 of the same year in Spanish territory, where 25,000 football kits were confiscated.
In another phase of the operation, coordinated by Europol in Madrid, 41,049 counterfeit items were seized from two platforms located in Portugal, "among the multiple ones they used." The same day, more than 6,000 items were seized in Portuguese territory, "prepared to be sent from two Portuguese platforms to this large logistics hub in Madrid."
Of the total items seized, the agents have stated that around 80% corresponds to textile garments, close to 20% to sports sneakers, and around 1% to perfumes and sunglasses.
"They had very practical logistics with transnational character. Members of the organization used several vehicles, mostly vans, that could cover 300 kilometers per day between the logistics platforms of the province and Portugal. This is how they ensured managing a large volume of goods and keeping continuously active an instruction chain for these products," the captain of the Judicial Police of the Guardia Civil in Ourense added.
The commanding officer lieutenant colonel in charge of the Command in Ourense, Rafael Berguillo, has recalled that a similar operation was carried out as early as 2013 and has indicated that some of those now being investigated are related to that case. "They are effective at something that has been professionalized in this art, to the point that the experts themselves recognize the quality of the counterfeits and the enormous movement of capital that that entails," he said.
An illicit business valued at 20 million euros
Juan José López has emphasized that the economic volume linked to the criminal activity of the network would be around 20 million euros, of which approximately 80% was collected by cash on delivery and the remaining 20% through bank cheques, transfers, or bizums, with even hidden money batches located.
To illustrate the magnitude of the income, the captain has indicated that between May 2025 and September 2026 one of the members of the plot came to receive more than €2.1 million in cash, and that in September 2025 the person considered to be the leader or co-leader received more than €250,000 also in cash.
The deputy head of the Government in Ourense, Eladio Santos, has explained that the operation, named “Malabis,” remains open and that the Guardia Civil continues to trace the destination of the funds, their use, and the possible ramifications of the network of counterfeiting, drawn up mainly in Asia.
Santos has also wanted to highlight the “complete success” of this action that is still under way and has conveyed his congratulations “most earnestly” to the investigators, stressing that operations of this kind “show that the province of Ourense is not a pleasant place for criminals.”