Eleven arrested as Police seize thousands of litres of fake olive oil in raids in southern Spain and Italy

Organised International gang allegedly distribute “doctored” lower-quality oils as virgin and extra virgin olive oil

Spanish and Italian police have arrested 11 people during an operation which revealed an organised international gang allegedly passing off cheap olive oil as virgin and extra virgin.

Spain’s Guardia Civil took part in a joint police operation with the Italian Carabinieri and Europol, seizing more than 5,000 litres of diluted olive oil, as well as four luxury cars and €91,000 in cash, following raids on eight properties, three in towns located in Andalucía including Jaén and Córdoba in central southern Spain. The raids in Spain also discovered oil-bottling plants.

Spain produces half the world’s olive oil and is expected to produce 765,000 tonnes this year, more than the 664,000 produced in last year’s harvest but well short of the approximate 1.3 million tonnes that was the normal harvest in previous years.

Olive oil production has suffered following droughts and other adverse weather conditions in western Europe for the second consecutive year, increasing the cost of olive oil after a fall in global production.

Europol issued a statement saying, “Unfortunately, the faking of extra virgin olive oil is a common practice. A mix of various factors, such as the general inflation of prices, reduced olive oil production and increasing demand, have created the perfect breeding ground for fraudulent producers.

“Mixing consumer-grade olive oil with lower grade alternatives allowed the criminals to offer competitive prices while entering legal supply chains,” the statement added.

World wide olive oil production is expected to fall to 2.4 million tonnes in the current year, according to the International Olive Council, lagging behind the global demand of around 3 million tonnes causing a supply and demand imbalance resulting in rocketing prices.

The operation began after Spanish authorities discovered “a series of anomalies” while inspecting a lorry that was moving olive oil in the Ciudad Real region, just south of Madrid.

Spanish police collaborated with Italian authorities when they discovered a two-pronged operation designed to distribute adulterated olive oil on the global market.

“In Spain, they used a company that was linked to the acquisition of lower-category oils to make changes to cloudy and poor quality oils to turn them into virgin and extra virgin and then sell them by falsifying documents,” the authorities said in a statement.

“They mixed cloudy oils – a sub-product of the olive oil producing process – with better quality olive oil so as to obtain the correct levels of fats and other substances to allow them to be sold. They also impeded traceability by not registering their company’s oils.”

The Italian authorities discovered a similar alleged operation involving two important oil-processing companies in Italy.

“Eight simultaneous searches were carried out in Spain and Italy and 11 people were arrested,” the statement said.

“As a result of the searches, more than 5,200 litres of market-ready, adulterated olive oil have been seized, along with €91,000 in cash and four prestige vehicles. A number of bank accounts have also been blocked.”

Heatwaves, with temperatures above 40ºC across Spain and other olive-producing countries such as Greece, Italy, Portugal, Turkey and Morocco, have made it increasingly difficult to protect the industry.

Image: Guardia Civil