Madrid (EFE).- A hundred people have been arrested and more than 3,500 tons of wooden pallets have been immobilized by the Seprona agents of the Civil Guard in the framework of the Taviur operation, together with Europol, for failing to comply with the requirements legal treatment for its international circuit and pose a risk for the spread of forest pests.
The immobilized wooden packaging did not comply with current legislation, which posed a very high phytosanitary risk for the entire EU, given that the associated pests have negative effects on the biodiversity of forests, native fauna and the health of crops, as reported This Tuesday at a press conference, Commander José Carlos Martínez, from Seprona.
Since last year, the Nature Protection service of the Civil Guard has carried out 828 inspections of wooden packaging that poses a risk in the spread of pests and has investigated 104 people for failing to comply with the regulations.
The Nature Protection Units (Uprona) of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, carried out international investigations and found that companies in the wood sector applied the official ISPM 15 mark on pallets without them have received the heat treatment certified by said brand.
In addition, the members of the plot used counterfeit stamps for the application of the ISPM 15 marking, illegally acquired from printers involved, which also allowed them to buy them at a lower price than those that had received heat treatment.