Up to 48,000 cigarette packs produced per day and multimillion revenues. The Guardia di Finanza and the Carabinieri of Turin dismantled a transnational criminal association active in the illegal production and smuggling of processed tobacco. The large-scale joint operation “Chain smoking,” which involved over 130 officers, led to the execution of 23 personal precautionary measures and the preventive seizure of assets worth nearly 140 million euros.
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The production
The seizures and precautionary measures, however, are only the result of a complex investigative activity started in recent months: in October 2025, the Gdf of Turin and the Carabinieri Company of Venaria Reale had identified five clandestine factories in the territory of the Piedmontese capital and its hinterland. It was precisely in these plants that the illegal production of cigarettes took place, which were stored in two warehouses designed for product storage.
The plants were equipped with real production lines complete with expensive machinery, devices, and technological instruments. Specifically, these structures were camouflaged in industrial areas located in the north of Turin, in the neighborhoods of Madonna di Campagna, Barca, and Rebaudengo, and in the municipalities of Caselle Torinese, Venaria Reale, and Avigliana.
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The illegal activity
In recent months, therefore, once the illegal plants were identified, the law enforcement had seized over 230 tons of processed tobacco of extra-EU origin, 22 tons of cigarettes mostly already packaged in packs, and almost 538 million components (filters, rolling papers, and packaging cards) for the production and packaging of cigarettes, which used counterfeit trademarks of some of the most well-known brands in the sector. The production capacity of the factories – sophisticated and perfectly functioning – was remarkable. According to the first estimates by the Guardia di Finanza and Carabinieri, the association would have been able to place on the illegal market at least 35 million cigarette packs, for a total of about 700 tons of product. C
as explained by the Carabinieri, the personnel would have been employed under exploitative conditions, disregarding safety regulations, with grueling shifts and without any protection. The plants were powered by generators to prevent energy consumption peaks from revealing the presence of fully operational machinery. The windows had been darkened and the interiors were lit only artificially.
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